Text size

As Brett Kavanaugh inched toward confirmation as a Supreme Court Justice in Washington on Friday, Facebook employees gathered for an emergency town hall meeting nearly 3,000 miles away to express their frustration with one of Kavanaugh’s supporters in their ranks.

Joel Kaplan, Facebook’s vice president for global public policy, had upset employees when he sat behind Kavanaugh as the judge fielded questions during the Senate hearing last week about allegations of sexual misconduct the judge has denied. On Friday, Kaplan solemnly addressed employees at the company’s Menlo Park, Calif., headquarters, according to a person who attended the meeting.

Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg and Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg, who also participated in the meeting, which was also live-streamed, expressed frustration that Kaplan had inserted Facebook into the country’s most charged and divisive political debate. Another attendee described the mood as tense, and Kaplan’s comments as conciliatory, though he defended his longtime friendship with Kavanaugh. Both men worked in President George W. Bush’s administration.

Zuckerberg and Sandberg emphasized Facebook is a place of diverse opinions that should be tolerated and supported, said the first person who attended, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Facebook declined comment for this article. In a statement before Friday’s meeting, the company said: “Sexual assault is an issue society has turned a blind eye to for far too long—compounding every victim’s pain. Our leadership team recognizes that they’ve made mistakes handling the events of the last week and we’re grateful for all the feedback from our employees.”

Hundreds of Facebook (FB) employees were reportedly furious over Kaplan’s appearance on TV screens nationwide, and inundated company officials with messages of protest. Employees were already rankled by the company being pulled into political debates stemming from Russian manipulation of the platform during the 2016 presidential election, as well as claims by conservatives that Facebook and others show bias in how they treat their content.

Kaplan’s public support has only added to Facebook’s pile of headaches—especially as it faces increasing regulatory scrutiny from federal lawmakers over its handling of user data.

Last month, the company disclosed it was the victim of a data breach that impacted at least 50 million accounts, a miscue that could cost it up to a $1.63 billion fine from Ireland’s Data Protection Commission.

Several days earlier, the company suffered the abrupt defection of two its most important employees—Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, who co-founded mobile photo-sharing app Instagram and sold it to Facebook for $1 billion in 2012.