The scandals around Bobby Kotick They do not stop and have added an unexpected protagonist: Sheryl Sandberg. The director of operations of Meta, historical right-hand man of Mark Zuckerberg, has come under fire after learning that would have intimidated a British media not to publish an article that involved the current CEO of ActivisionBlizzardwho was his partner for three years.
According to The Wall Street JournalSheryl Sandberg would have starred in two episodes against the MailOnlinethe online version of Daily Mail. The first would have occurred in 2016 and the second in 2019, and both would have had the same objective: to stop a report on a restraining order that Bobby Kotick had received at the request of an old girlfriend.
The aforementioned report indicates that the executive is now under internal scrutiny from Meta. The company has started a review procedure to establish whether Sandberg violated his rules; however, it is unknown if he could face any kind of punishment if it is concluded that he did.
The first contact of the American board with the British newspaper would have occurred when he began his relationship with Bobby Kotick in 2016. According to WSJthere are mixed versions about the content of the apparent communication between Sheryl Sandberg and Martin Clarke, editor-in-chief of the medium.
The report indicates that the CEO of Activision Blizzard would have told his environment that the businesswoman threatened the Daily Mail that your business relationship with Facebook would be severely damaged if he went ahead with the publication of the article in question. This has been disputed and denied by Kotick himself, who assured that MailOnline did not publish the article simply because it was not truthful.
The second contact would have occurred in 2019, when Sheryl Sandberg and the aforementioned businessman ended their courtship. When the media tried to revive the story of the restraining order against Bobby Kotick, the executive would have communicated directly with the aristocrat Jonathan Harmsworthgrandson of the founder of Daily Mail and president of DMGT, the newspaper’s parent company. However, the contact subsequently led back to Clarke; and although it is mentioned that the conversation would not have been in a threatening tone, the publication of the report was again ruled out.
Bobby Kotick and a case that takes another dimension after the Activision Blizzard scandal
What MailOnline wanted to publish related to a restraining order placed on Bobby Kotick in 2014 at the request of an ex-girlfriend. The woman in question stated that she broke up with the businessman because he was controlling and abusiveand that subsequently the aforementioned person appeared at his house and tried to enter without an invitation.
This prompted a call to the police and resulted in Kotick not being able to come within 90 meters of his ex-partner for three weeks. And although the woman later asked for a longer restriction, said request was withdrawn at the request of both parties. But the most confusing thing happened later, since the accuser herself would have recognized that parts of her statement would have been falsified or exaggerated.
The truth is that, one way or another, the case did not escalate until MailOnline he began poking around a few years later. However, seeing it in retrospect takes on another dimension due to the scandal that has broken out at Activision Blizzard last year.
Let us remember that the video game company has been involved in controversy over the multiple allegations of sexual harassment made by their employees. And Bobby Kotick has been identified not only as an accomplice and facilitator, because he would have had knowledge of the events from the beginning, but also as a stalker.
A report that could have affected the public image of Sheryl Sandberg
Sheryl Sandberg’s alleged intimidation of Daily Mail Y MailOnline It wouldn’t just have been to “protect” Bobby Kotick. The executive, considered by TIME as one of the most influential people in the world in 2012, she has always stood out for her fight for the visibility of women in the workplace and especially in leadership roles; therefore, if her relationship with a person accused of abusive came to light —despite knowing that situation beforehand—, she would have seen herself as a possible stain on your public image.
The Wall Street Journal He assures that for the planning prior to the first contact with the British media, Sandberg did not act alone. Kotick, lawyers from the United States and the United Kingdom, public relations advisers and even employees of Facebook and Activision Blizzard also participated in the talks on how to “dissuade” the publication of the article.
Anyway, from the environment of the executive this situation continues to be denied. “Sheryl Sandberg never threatened MailOnline’s business relationship with Facebook to influence an editorial decision,” a Meta spokeswoman said.
But what is striking is that this is not the first time that Bobby Kotick has been linked to an attempt to control the press. In the middle of the scandal over the complaints of harassment, it was learned that the CEO of Activision Blizzard would have thought of buying media specialized in video games; so he would have tried modify the narrative on the subject to make it more “friendly” with the company. However, this plan never materialized.