Yahoo Finance Mark Zuckerberg's 'war' footing at Facebook driving out executives
Aggressive internal messaging from Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg is causing rifts with allies and contributing to high-level departures.
A "war" footing inside the company as it responds to scandals and media pressure has been partly to blame for several departures, sources told the Wall Street Journal.
After being seen as slow to act against Russian attempts to meddle on Facebook during US elections, Mr Zuckerberg is said to have adopted a more decisive leadership style.
At a meeting with staff in June, Mr Zuckerberg blamed media attacks for "bad morale" at the company, calling some of the coverage "bullshit".
Mr Zuckerberg has also reportedly experienced tensions with his key deputy, chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg.
The Wall Street Journal reported that she had confided in friends that she is worried about her job. Mr Zuckerberg has also told Ms Sandberg to allocate additional resources for taking down abusive content on its site, which has proved a challenge that its artificial intelligence systems are still adapting to.
Facebook has seen several high-level departures, including the co-founders of Instagram, WhatsApp and Oculus, its virtual reality headset. The US newspaper reported that Mr Zuckerberg's decisions over new features on WhatsApp and Instagram had caused some of the exits.
One former executive, the company's former security head Alex Stamos, has defended the approach of Mr Zuckerberg and Ms Sandberg. "[Facebook] famously coddles most employees," he said, "but no successful company does that at the top."
A Facebook spokesman said “We were absolutely too slow to identify a range of issues over the past two years, but once we did we took strong action to address them and prevent future abuse. We’ve made massive investments in safety and security. While we know we have more work to do, we believe we’ve made progress.”
In one move showing the companies new rhetoric, Facebook set up an internal election "war room" ahead of US polls for the Midterm elections to root out fake news and disinformation.
The company has moved to hit back at critics. Last week, reports emerged that Facebook has hired Washington DC public affairs company Definers Public Affairs to attack its critics. The company's internal moves to dig up stories on rivals has clashed with its public apologies over scandals.
It has since hired former UK Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg to head up its public policy and government relations operations.
