Sheryl Sandberg reportedly used Facebook assets to assist embattled Activision CEO | Engadget

Meta is reportedly investigating whether or not Sheryl Sandberg broke firm guidelines in her dealings with a publication that was reporting on Activision CEO Bobby Kotick, who she was courting on the time. According to a in The Wall Street Journal, the Meta COO used firm assets to assist kill unfavorable reporting about Kotick. Meta is now reportedly conducting a “review” of her actions and “whether she violated the company’s rules.”

According to the report, the British tabloid MailOn-line was pursuing a narrative based mostly on allegations made by a former girlfriend of Kotick’s, and a short lived restraining order she had acquired in opposition to him. But Sandberg and Kotick labored collectively on two separate events, in 2016 and in 2019, to strategize on how you can “persuade the Daily Mail not to report on the restraining order.”

The report states that Facebook and Activision employees had been each immediately concerned within the effort, and that there was concern internally at Facebook that the story would “reflect negatively on her reputation as an advocate for women.”

The Wall Street Journal report additionally questions whether or not Sandberg inappropriately wielded her affect as Facebook COO in her dealings with the MailOn-line administration. One of the paper’s unnamed sources states that Kotick “told people that Ms. Sandberg threatened the Mail in 2016 by saying that such an article, if published, could damage the news organization’s business relationship with Facebook.”

In a press release, a Meta spokesperson denied Sandberg had “threatened” MailOn-line. “Sheryl Sandberg never threatened the MailOnline’s business relationship with Facebook in order to influence an editorial decision,” the spokesperson stated. “This story attempts to make connections that don’t exist.” Kotick instructed The Journal he “never said anything like that.”

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