RANCHOS PALOS VERDES, California — Billionaire financial specialist Peter Thiel never counseled or conversed with Facebook about subsidizing previous ace wrestler Hulk Hogan's court fight against Gawker — and there are no arrangements to expel him from Facebook's top managerial staff.
That was the message focused by Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg when squeezed different times at the yearly Code Conference to deliver Thiel's disputable endeavors to undermine Gawker and its scholars through excessive claims that have conveyed it to the verge of selling itself.
"Subside did what he did all alone and we were not conversed with about it," Sandberg said in front of an audience. She fought that despite the fact that Thiel is a Facebook board part, "this is not a Facebook thing."
At the point when asked straightforwardly whether Facebook planned to keep Thiel on its top managerial staff, Sandberg said, "Yes."
Thiel uncovered a month ago to The New York Times that he gave subsidizing to Hogan's lawful group after Hogan sued Gawker for posting a clasp of a sex tape of him on the site.
Facebook stayed discernibly quiet in the days that took after, even as various distributions including WebTech squeezed for illumination on whether it excused Thiel's activities or wanted to condemn him in any capacity.
Various media outlets called for Facebook to expel Thiel from its board, refering to worries about Facebook's association with the press if a board part is effectively attempting to undermine one or more distributions. The optics were aggravated all the by the way that Facebook spent the earlier weeks attempting to quiet a clamor over conceivable inclination in its Trending Topics.
Indeed, even before Sandberg authoritatively shot down the likelihood of expelling Thiel from the load up, it seemed improbable: Thiel was the primary significant speculator in Facebook and has been a counselor to the organization's CEO Mark Zuckerberg since the good 'ol days and a long-term individual from its board.
Sandberg safeguarded Thiel's entitlement to do as he wishes and stand up.
"We have exceptionally free board individuals with extremely autonomous considerations," she said. "They're not reluctant to think uniquely in contrast to others" And this is something, Sandberg said, they prize in board individuals.
Sandberg included: "These are difficult issues and nobody is going to imagine that when free board individuals do things it will be simple for the organizations."
She additionally made it clear that Thiel did this time permitting and did not utilize Facebook assets.
"In the event that he did anything with Facebook assets, that would be a Facebook issue," said Sandberg.
Numerous in the tech group have aroused behind Thiel's endeavors as of late, calling him a legend for pushing back against Gawker, which is scolded by some in the business for its basic and lustful scope.
Others, including individuals from the media and in addition Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, proposed the unsafe point of reference that pursuing this sort of money related fight on the media could have on free discourse.
"You would prefer not to disintegrate those ... you would prefer not to make any sort of atmosphere of apprehension or chill regarding free discourse standards," Bezos said for the current week.
Extra reporting contributed by Seth Fiegerman.