After an internal Q&A with CEO Mark Zuckerberg made headlines over the tech tycoon’s pro-President Trump commentary, Meta threatened to fire staffers for leaking information to the media — in a memo that then also got leaked.
Meta “will take appropriate action, including termination,” for any leakers, Meta’s chief information security officer, Guy Rosen, said in a memo obtained by the Verge.
“When information is stolen or leaked, there are repercussions beyond the immediate security impact,” Rosen said. “Our teams become demoralized and we all waste time that is better spent working on our products and toward our goals and mission.”
“We recently terminated relationships with employees who leaked confidential company information inappropriately and exfiltrated sensitive documents,” the memo continued.
The warning came after recordings were shared with media sources of an internal, hourlong meeting on Thursday with more than 70,000 staffers, during which Zuckerberg praised Trump, defended Meta’s DEI reversal — and complained about leaks.
“We try to be really open and then everything I say leaks,” Zuckerberg said, according to leaked recordings. “It sucks.”
Meta did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
During the Q&A, Zuckerberg applauded the Trump administration, and seemingly snuck in a dig at former President Joe Biden.
“After the last several years, we now have an opportunity to have a productive partnership with the United States government,” Zuckerberg said. “The government can sort of be actively opposing you, trying to get in the way and add a lot of friction, or can be actively trying to help you break down barriers to help you.”
“It’s the right thing to do,” he added, on having a good relationship with the Trump administration.
Like many others in the tech and crypto industries, Zuckerberg has been cozying up to the president in hopes that his administration will foster a friendlier regulatory environment.
He sat in front of Trump’s cabinet picks, along with Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and Tesla founder Elon Musk, during the president’s inauguration.
He also recently axed Meta’s fact-checking policies and diversity initiatives in a nod to Trump and close ally Musk.
In recent years, Zuckerberg has tried to shut down dissent over these decisions at Meta, banning staffers from speaking about certain contentious political and social issues, according to the New York Times.
But some Meta workers have protested the changes — like the removal of tampons from the men’s bathrooms.
Staffers have been bringing in their own tampons, pads and liners to stock the men’s restroom as a silent protest, according to the Times.
During Thursday’s Q&A, Zuckerberg defended Meta’s DEI policy reversal.
“We’re in the middle of a pretty rapidly changing policy and regulatory landscape that views any policy that might advantage any one group of people over another as something that is unlawful,” he said. “Because of that, we and every other institution out there are going to need to adjust.”
A flood of major companies — including Target and Walmart — have backtracked on their DEI initiatives, and the pullback has only ramped up since Trump took office and signed an executive order that seeks to ban diversity programs at the federal level.
During the meeting, Janelle Gale, Meta’s head of people, said there were other types of discrimination at Meta that needed to be addressed, like women being fired for sexual harassment and staffers being excluded for their political views, according to the Times.
Zuckerberg said the company was bringing back a form of unconscious bias training that would focus on more than just “a few different groups.”
In 2025, Meta will largely focus on artificial intelligence, building large data centers and the metaverse, Zuckerberg said.
He also mentioned that Meta was keeping a close eye on the looming TikTok ban, and commented on DeepSeek, the Chinese AI rival that shook the tech sector, arguing it has already helped Meta improve its own AI models.
The Q&A session reportedly had a less interactive format with fewer opportunities to submit questions, which Zuckerberg blamed on the leaks.
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