Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg’s goodbye note is being dragged on Twitter for misrepresenting her history.
In the note, Sandberg says that when she met Facebook (now Meta) founder Mark Zuckerberg, she “thought the internet was a largely anonymous place to search for funny pictures,” and that Zuckerberg’s mesmerized her with his vision that people would “put their real selves online to connect with other people.”
At the time, Sandberg was a vice president for ad sales at Google.
Users were quick to point out that the internet in the late 2000s was far from a place to share funny pictures. And it most likely wasn’t viewed that way by a VP at Google. In 2007, when Sandberg was there, Google had an estimated 16,000 employees.
“Wikipedia, instant messaging, video streaming. Come on. I bet torrenting/pirate streaming were 70% of internet traffic then. As it is now with video streaming,” another replied.
“the folksy aww shucks bullshit bit has made it to Valley PR teams,” another wrote.
Sandberg officially joined Facebook in 2008, quickly helping Facebook turn a profit for the first time in company history by relying on ad sales. Sandberg was instrumental in developing the Facebook we know today, and her departure after 14 years marks the end of an era for the social media giant.
However, her tenure was mired in controversy as Facebook grew and became the dominant force it is today. Her handling of the Cambridge Analytica scandal was documented by the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal reported that Zuckerberg privately blamed her for the fallout over Cambridge Analytica and the bad press Facebook received after.