Book excerpt shows how Zuckerberg and Sandberg's partnership deteriorated during the Trump era, as Zuckerberg increasingly made the biggest policy decisions
it feels ... familiar. And excited to read this tome tonight. https://twitter.com/... @seyitaylor : I'm assuming this is what the “Agrestes” episode was based on? https://twitter.com/... Seamus Hughes / @seamushughes : It's like when they make you shoot b roll for the interview and you are forced to do small talk with the reporter in a walk and talk. https://twitter.com/... Ali Breland / @alibreland : i love to take public walks with my good friends around the cul-de-sac https://twitter.com/... Sheera Frenkel / @sheeraf : Do you think it is coincidence that Zuckerberg and Sandberg decided to do a walk-by the cameras in Sun Valley on the same day that our NYT excerpt came out about their relationship? https://twitter.com/... Sarah Frier / @sarahfrier : A lot for these two to discuss today, including this from @sheeraf and @ceciliakang: https://www.nytimes.com/... https://twitter.com/... Kate Klonick / @klonick : Tremendous detail and meticulous reporting by @ceciliakang & @sheeraf in this excerpt from their new book. Their work is creating such an important historical record. Cannot wait to read this book! https://www.nytimes.com/... Joan Donovan / @bostonjoan : Lots to unpack about the most powerful people in the world. Looking forward to reading the book out loud to this commander in chief: https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/... Evelyn Douek / @evelyndouek : Some good image rehabilitation in this for Sandberg. Perhaps the political ambitions aren't dead yet. https://www.nytimes.com/... Sheera Frenkel / @sheeraf : When we told people we were writing a book about Facebook, everyone's first question was why Sandberg stayed at the company. We tried to answer some of that in this excerpt, but it is just a tiny sliver of what we have in our book! https://www.nytimes.com/... Corey Ciorciari / @coreyciorciari : So the guy Zuckerberg has running Facebook global policy — including it's work on election interference and disinfo — interviewed to lead Trump's OMB and was an architect of the 2000 Brooks Brother riots to stop ballot counting in Florida. Cool. https://twitter.com/... Jason Kint / @jason_kint : I think it's worth pointing out timing, too. He interviewed literally during a period in 2016 when the conflicts of interest were tremendous knowing what we know now. https://twitter.com/... Jason Kint / @jason_kint : It's positioned Kaplan “withdrew” but “took the interview anyway,” whatever that means. The entire cover-up cost over $5B to SEC/FTC to avoid Sandberg, Kaplan, Zuckerberg, others classified as “insiders” being deposed and having their role in the cover-up show up in discovery. /2 Jason Kint / @jason_kint : Importantly, reports were it was Sandberg and Kaplan's collective political capital that allowed her to pre-negotiate and avoid taking and answering actual tough questions on the matter the very one time she had to testify under oath to Congress in 2018. /3 Kara Swisher / @karaswisher : Btw as I frequently told Sheryl in ever more irritating phone calls over the years, there was no smooth handling of what was fundamentally a product issue. What Mark made was designed to eventually incite more than illuminate. It was an inevitable and obvious rage machine. Kara Swisher / @karaswisher : Someone had to be thrown under the bus for Facebook's sins and it sure wasn't going to be Mark. Read this excerpt from the new book by @sheeraf and @ceciliakang Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg'sPartnership Did Not Survive Trump https://www.nytimes.com/... Steve Kovach / @stevekovach : This paints a bleak picture of Sandberg's recent tenure at Facebook. But we've been hearing variations of this about her for years. (She's going to quit. Going to run for Senate. Going to work for Clinton. Etc.) And she's still at the job. https://www.nytimes.com/... Adam Satariano / @satariano : The first excerpt of the book Facebook execs have been dreading. https://twitter.com/... @nytimes : In the Trump era, Facebook struggled with the role it played in his rise and in the spread of misinformation around the world. But the company's problems were features, not bugs, and were the natural outgrowth of Zuckerberg and Sandberg's partnership. https://www.nytimes.com/... Venkat Ananth / @venkatananth : This very timely book by @ceciliakang and @sheeraf seems to be rather promising, going by this excerpt. 🔥🔥🔥 Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg's partnership did not survive Trump https://www.nytimes.com/... Peter Baker / @peterbakernyt : The Trump presidency was a trying period for Facebook and for its leaders, testing a central relationship between Zuckerberg and Sandberg as she became increasingly isolated. An excerpt from the long-awaited book “An Ugly Truth” by @sheeraf @ceciliakang https://www.nytimes.com/... Michael J. Zalewski / @mjzalewski : The part about the doctored Pelosi video here is mind blowing, in a bad way. Should have been a no brainer. https://www.nytimes.com/... Justin Hendrix / @justinhendrix : 1/ Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg's Partnership Did Not Survive Trump: make time to read this book excerpt from @ceciliakang and @sheeraf. It is part of an extensive effort to chronicle Facebook based on hundreds of interviews: https://www.nytimes.com/... Eric Hananoki / @ehananoki : “Zuckerberg scheduled an appointment with Mr. Kushner, who had led digital media strategy for the Trump campaign. He wanted to deliver a compliment about the campaign, and told Mr. Kushner: ‘You were very good on Facebook.’” https://www.nytimes.com/... Heath Brown / @heathbrown : Telling detail on role of lobbyists during 2016 transition “Mr. Kaplan, who accompanied Ms. Sandberg to Trump Tower, stayed 1 day longer to interview with the Trump transition team for the position of director of the OMB.” https://www.nytimes.com/... William Turton / @williamturton : Ms. Sandberg would go on to tell Dan Rose, a former vice president at Facebook, that she felt she had been “put on this planet to scale organizations.” https://www.nytimes.com/... Shira Ovide / @shiraovide : “to the people who were there, Ms. Sandberg seemed to be hearing only what she wanted to hear.” A must-read excerpt from @sheeraf & @ceciliakang's new book, WHICH I CANNOT WAIT TO READ. https://www.nytimes.com/... Jason Kint / @jason_kint : Here is full excerpt. Provides a lot of context for the relationship of the two top executives. I think their relationship very much survived. No other CEO and COO pairing in history survives the scandals that they have gone through together. /end https://www.nytimes.com/...
New York Times
Context & Ripple Effects
The excerpt adds a leadership-governance dimension to Facebook's earlier crisis record: reporting had described the company’s attempts to obscure its handling of multiple crises, while this account assigns more of the decisive policy authority to Zuckerberg. That matters because the same period included Facebook’s fraught role in Trump’s rise and misinformation, making the Zuckerberg-Sandberg split a question of who controlled the company’s political-risk response.
It also fits a broader internal-centralization pattern: a separate account described Zuckerberg limiting Instagram’s independence and driving out its founders. Here, the center of gravity shifts not only across products but also over Facebook’s highest-stakes policy calls.
First-order effects
Zuckerberg becomes the effective final decision-maker on Facebook’s biggest policy questions, while Sandberg’s COO role carries less authority over the company’s public and political response.
Facebook’s handling of misinformation and its role in Trump’s rise becomes more directly identified with Zuckerberg’s judgments rather than a shared Zuckerberg-Sandberg leadership model.
Second-order effects
Facebook’s policy and communications teams must orient escalation around Zuckerberg, concentrating accountability for crisis decisions at the CEO level.
Congress and other external critics gain a clearer focal point for Facebook’s governance failures: the executive making the final calls rather than an ostensibly balanced senior partnership.
Third-order effects
If CEO-led policy control becomes the durable model, Facebook’s governance structure becomes less dependent on an operational counterweight and more exposed to the preferences of its founder.
The pattern points toward political-risk management becoming a core founder-level function at major platforms, rather than a responsibility that can be delegated chiefly to a COO.
The trend: Major platforms are concentrating politically consequential content and policy decisions in founder-CEOs as public scrutiny turns governance design into a reputational liability.
OK. This is news buried in excerpt of new book. Remember, this was one of Facebook' executives involved in covering up Facebook's role in having Americans' data illegally sold and used by a foreign political operative to help elect Trump with Facebook in the room guiding them. /1…
Still thinking about this Don Graham quote describing Mark Zuckerberg's relationship to books a few hours later! https://www.nytimes.com/... via @sheeraf @ceciliakang & their book out next week https://twitter.com/...
FIRST GLIMPSE of our book An Ugly Truth: starting with the frayed partnership of Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg. With @sheeraf Much more to come. Book lands July 13. https://www.nytimes.com/...
This piece is fascinating but, as usual with mainstream coverage of Facebook, only briefly/terrifiedly mentions Peter Fucking Thiel, who engineered every part of the Zuck and Trump relationship. *It was Thiel who set up the meeting, but anyway moving on...* https://www.nytimes.co…
Interesting details here about the corporate inertia inside Facebook around the obviously manipulated Pelosi video (which we first reported in 2019: https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...). “Zuckerberg and members of the policy team pondered if the video could be defined as parody” …
Three big takeaways from this piece: Sandberg is a moral coward. Facebook, along with its other sins, has a deeply sexist culture. Zuckerberg is a sociopath. But we knew that. https://www.nytimes.com/...
Recall that Trump's campaign was utilizing data it siphoned from millions of Facebook users and was at the same time getting preferable rates on its advertising spend based on Facebook's pricing mechanism while also running voter suppression campaigns targeting Black voters. http…
@karaswisher @runaislam I think they are running a large company trying to make the best they can to make two warring factions happy while running a business. People want a scape goat but it won't fix anything. Mistakes are inevitable, especially when running a large social media…
Great read about the most interesting relationship in modern business. Not sure that I agree with the editorial take on SS getting “thrown under the bus,” though. It seems to me that she has always had a ton of agency in her relationship with MZ, even (especially?) post 2016. htt…
Reminder that there is no redemption, no chance whatsoever, for Facebook to improve (or even attempt to balance the scales) as long as Joel Kaplan remains a part of that company. None. Full stop. https://twitter.com/...
@karaswisher Lol, I absolutely trust that you have the inside scoop on the specific people dynamics! I just think that in the end, she will probably author the narrative of her own ultimate exit (maybe even with Zuck's support).
This book is going to be so good. The first excerpt offers a pretty complicated view of Sandberg's evolving role and the seeming acknowledgement that FB has tarnished whatever legacy she leaves. https://twitter.com/...
Not a fan of the ghoulish caricature thing. Analyzing organizations and their leaders is a complicated business, and oversimplifying it through graphical vilification does not help. https://www.nytimes.com/...
A master class in framing a no-comment: “Both executives declined to comment for this story, perhaps letting the company's performance speak for itself.” https://www.nytimes.com/...
@runaislam She is not without blame. But the mark forces are trying to lay this mostly at her feet, even though he has all the control and has made all the bad calls. Trust me.
I mean, Sheryl Sandberg is as guilty as Zukerberg, but hasn't gotten nearly as much attention. What really did not survive was America. America did not survive the partnership between Zukerberg and Sandberg. Curses on them both. https://twitter.com/...
a lot of weird moments in this piece, but this line is memorably wretched: “Ms. Sandberg would go on to tell Dan Rose, a former vice president at Facebook, that she felt she had been “put on this planet to scale organizations."" https://www.nytimes.com/...
“The indictments made it clear just how large a part Facebook had played, both in spreading misinformation about election fraud to fuel anger among the Jan. 6 protesters, and in aiding the extremist militia's communication ahead of the riots.” https://www.nytimes.com/...
Really digging these blurbs on the new Facebook book by @ceciliakang and @sheeraf — it feels ... familiar. And excited to read this tome tonight. https://twitter.com/...
It's like when they make you shoot b roll for the interview and you are forced to do small talk with the reporter in a walk and talk. https://twitter.com/...
Do you think it is coincidence that Zuckerberg and Sandberg decided to do a walk-by the cameras in Sun Valley on the same day that our NYT excerpt came out about their relationship? https://twitter.com/...
Tremendous detail and meticulous reporting by @ceciliakang & @sheeraf in this excerpt from their new book. Their work is creating such an important historical record. Cannot wait to read this book! https://www.nytimes.com/...
Lots to unpack about the most powerful people in the world. Looking forward to reading the book out loud to this commander in chief: https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/...
When we told people we were writing a book about Facebook, everyone's first question was why Sandberg stayed at the company. We tried to answer some of that in this excerpt, but it is just a tiny sliver of what we have in our book! https://www.nytimes.com/...
So the guy Zuckerberg has running Facebook global policy — including it's work on election interference and disinfo — interviewed to lead Trump's OMB and was an architect of the 2000 Brooks Brother riots to stop ballot counting in Florida. Cool. https://twitter.com/...
I think it's worth pointing out timing, too. He interviewed literally during a period in 2016 when the conflicts of interest were tremendous knowing what we know now. https://twitter.com/...
It's positioned Kaplan “withdrew” but “took the interview anyway,” whatever that means. The entire cover-up cost over $5B to SEC/FTC to avoid Sandberg, Kaplan, Zuckerberg, others classified as “insiders” being deposed and having their role in the cover-up show up in discovery. /2
Importantly, reports were it was Sandberg and Kaplan's collective political capital that allowed her to pre-negotiate and avoid taking and answering actual tough questions on the matter the very one time she had to testify under oath to Congress in 2018. /3
Btw as I frequently told Sheryl in ever more irritating phone calls over the years, there was no smooth handling of what was fundamentally a product issue. What Mark made was designed to eventually incite more than illuminate. It was an inevitable and obvious rage machine.
Someone had to be thrown under the bus for Facebook's sins and it sure wasn't going to be Mark. Read this excerpt from the new book by @sheeraf and @ceciliakang Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg's Partnership Did Not Survive Trump https://www.nytimes.com/...
This paints a bleak picture of Sandberg's recent tenure at Facebook. But we've been hearing variations of this about her for years. (She's going to quit. Going to run for Senate. Going to work for Clinton. Etc.) And she's still at the job. https://www.nytimes.com/...
In the Trump era, Facebook struggled with the role it played in his rise and in the spread of misinformation around the world. But the company's problems were features, not bugs, and were the natural outgrowth of Zuckerberg and Sandberg's partnership. https://www.nytimes.com/...
The Trump presidency was a trying period for Facebook and for its leaders, testing a central relationship between Zuckerberg and Sandberg as she became increasingly isolated. An excerpt from the long-awaited book “An Ugly Truth” by @sheeraf @ceciliakang https://www.nytimes.com/..…
This very timely book by @ceciliakang and @sheeraf seems to be rather promising, going by this excerpt. 🔥🔥🔥 Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg's partnership did not survive Trump https://www.nytimes.com/...
1/ Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg's Partnership Did Not Survive Trump: make time to read this book excerpt from @ceciliakang and @sheeraf. It is part of an extensive effort to chronicle Facebook based on hundreds of interviews: https://www.nytimes.com/...
Telling detail on role of lobbyists during 2016 transition “Mr. Kaplan, who accompanied Ms. Sandberg to Trump Tower, stayed 1 day longer to interview with the Trump transition team for the position of director of the OMB.” https://www.nytimes.com/...
“Zuckerberg scheduled an appointment with Mr. Kushner, who had led digital media strategy for the Trump campaign. He wanted to deliver a compliment about the campaign, and told Mr. Kushner: ‘You were very good on Facebook.’” https://www.nytimes.com/...
Ms. Sandberg would go on to tell Dan Rose, a former vice president at Facebook, that she felt she had been “put on this planet to scale organizations.” https://www.nytimes.com/...
“to the people who were there, Ms. Sandberg seemed to be hearing only what she wanted to hear.” A must-read excerpt from @sheeraf & @ceciliakang's new book, WHICH I CANNOT WAIT TO READ. https://www.nytimes.com/...
Here is full excerpt. Provides a lot of context for the relationship of the two top executives. I think their relationship very much survived. No other CEO and COO pairing in history survives the scandals that they have gone through together. /end https://www.nytimes.com/...
How much longer can Facebook leaders continue to feed employees this line that criticism is unwarranted, or as a FB exec once described me, just “sour grapes” from someone who “couldn't hack it”? Sadly, it still seems to work on many. Self reflection needs to start at the top. ht…