Facebook looking into report Sandberg had story squashed
Article dealt with boyfriend’s restraining order
Facebook has started an internal review of Sheryl Sandberg, chief operating officer of Meta Platforms Inc. after she came under fire for pressuring U.K. tabloid The Daily Mail to stop publication of an article about her then-boyfriend Bobby Kotick, the Wall Street Journal reports.
According to the Journal, in 2016 and 2019, Sandberg was in contact with the digital edition of the Daily Mail, called the Mailonline, which operates separately from the print version, to persuade them to stop reporting on a temporary restraining order against Kotick, chief executive of video game giant Activision Blizzard Inc.
According to the sworn declaration made by a former girlfriend of Kotick’s, the temporary order had been obtained after he allegedly harassed her at her Los Angeles home postbreak-up. The encounter resulted in her calling the police, the Journal reported.
Initially, the woman had petitioned the court for a longer-lasting order, reported the WSJ. However, three weeks later the matter was dismissed at the request of both parties and the temporary restraining order ended. According to the WSJ, the woman later told people that many of the allegations in the declaration she filed for the restraining order were either exaggerated or untrue. After the WSJ report was published, a representative for the woman contacted the publication with a written statement that read: “The statements I made about Bobby, over eight years ago, are false.”
One of the concerns of Sandberg’s legal team and public relations advisers, inside and outside Facebook, was that the story would negatively reflect on her reputation as being an advocate for women, reports the WSJ. She has been known for championing women in the workplace in a book, Lean In, and through a non-profit organization of the same name.
In a bid to smother the story, Sandberg and Kotick reportedly worked with a team of Facebook and Activision employees as well as paid outside advisers in 2016, when they first began dating, and again in 2019, when they broke up. In both cases, Sandberg told the Mailonline that the woman had retracted her allegations, reports the WSJ.
The Mailonline never ended up publishing a story.
It is not certain whether throughout the process of trying to put an end to the story Sandberg directly involved Facebook in her communications, reports the WSJ.
Kotick allegedly told people that in 2016, Sandberg threatened the Daily Mail by saying if it published the article, it would damage the organization’s relationship with Facebook. WSJ reports that Kotick has since refuted this statement.
In 2019, Sandberg allegedly emailed Jonathan Harmsworth, great-grandson of the Daily Mail’s founder and chairman of its parent company, her concerns about the article, reports the WSJ. Harmsworth passed the issue onto Martin Clarke, then editor in chief of the Mailonline, who reportedly exchange emails with Sandberg.
According to the WSJ, Mailonline is one of the most popular English-language news sites and it relies heavily on Facebook for a portion of its readership.
Sandberg, 52, has been at Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp, since 2008. Kotick has been at Activision since 1991. The company was recently acquired by Microsoft Corp. for $75 billion.
In 2020 Sandberg announced her engagement on Facebook to Kelton Global CEO Tom Bernthal.
THE STATEMENTS I MADE ABOUT BOBBY...ARE FALSE.