Widespread reports in the US media indicate Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has become more isolated inside his own company following the myriad of scandals around the tech giant.
The Washington Post reported former employees as saying, as he grapples with growing criticism and fallout from the Facebook Papers and other accusations of abuse of privacy and secret harvesting of users’ sensitive data, his own men have abandoned him.
The former employees said that Zuckerberg primarily communicates decisions to a tight inner circle known as the “Small Team” and a slightly larger group of company leaders known as the “M-Team” or “Mark’s Team,” according to the Post’s report Monday.
A consortium of 17 US news organizations, including the Post, on Monday said they had reviewed leaked internal documents, known as the Facebook Papers , obtained by whistleblower Frances Haugen.
The report by The Post outlined Zuckerberg’s management style based on interviews with former Facebook staffers and information gleaned from the Facebook Papers. The Post said that the company tightly controls information about Zuckerberg as well as information that reaches him.
Not only is Zuckerberg isolated within his own company, but his colleague Big Tech CEOs have all remain silent on him.
But Facebook disputed Zuckerberg’s isolation, the Post said.
The former employees told the Post that Zuckerberg had massive influence at the company that went further than what was publicly known.
“The specter of Zuckerberg looms in everything the company does,” Brian Boland, a former vice president of partnerships and marketing, told The Post. “It is entirely driven by him.”
Zuckerberg personally decided that Facebook would bow to pressure from Vietnam’s government to censor dissident voices , three people familiar with the decision told The Post.
As well as dominating high-level decision-making, Zuckerberg appears to have time left over for micromanagement. The Post reported two sources as saying that he personally designed the color scheme and the layout for Facebook’s “I got vaccinated” frames that users can use to enhance their profile pictures.
