Sheryl Sandberg: Peter Thiel To Stay At Facebook

Sheryl Sandberg says Peter Thiel will stay on Facebook’s board during an onstage chat at a technology conference Wednesday.

Sandberg, responding to questions from tech journalist Kara Swisher, said that fellow Facebook director, billionaire Thiel, will remain on the board.

“I know this has been actively discussed here and it should be actively discussed, because issues of independence and the media are key to democracy and key to all of us,” she said. “Peter did what he did on his own, not as a Facebook board member. We didn’t know about it.” h/t wp

Sandberg’s response follows days of criticism and questions over what Facebook would say about the issue. In op-eds, some journalists and corporate governance advisers had said Thiel should step down from Facebook’s board or that Zuckerberg should ask him to resign.

“If Zuckerberg does ultimately allow Thiel to stay on the board, you’ll know how the CEO — who holds absolute control over the world’s most-powerful media company — feels about the free press,” wrote technology writer Dan Gillmor at Slate.