By: Responsible Investor
Date: June 9, 2022
The press has been pulling no punches with Sheryl Sandberg since she announced her resignation last week.
The chief operating officer of Meta – formerly Facebook – was accused of leaving behind a “troubling legacy” by The Guardian, while American venture capitalist Roger McNamee used a comment piece in Time magazine to observe: “For shareholders, Sandberg was a superstar. She made shareholders rich. Unfortunately, that wealth came at great cost to our society.”
The criticism centres on what the Financial Times describes as Sandberg’s “delay, deny, deflect” approach to the relentless string of controversies Facebook has faced over the years, from content moderation and data privacy to discrimination and election interference.
But what about all those shareholders McNamee says she made rich? Surely they share responsibility for this legacy of sweeping the impacts of big tech under the rug?