High-ranking Facebook executive was ‘forced to resign over his support for Donald Trump’ after gifting $10,000 to anti-Clinton campaign during the 2016 Presidential election
Oculus VR co-founder Palmer Luckey was allegedly fired for supporting Trump
It had emerged Luckey paid $10,000 to an anti-Clinton group in the election
After the revelation bosses including Mark Zuckerberg put pressure on him
Eventually Luckey was put on leave and was said to have been fired in the end
It comes as Donald Trump accused the tech giant of anti-conservative bias
By GEORGE MARTIN
DAILYMAIL.COM
12 November 2018
A high-ranking Facebook executive was allegedly forced to resign after refusing to back down on his support for Donald Trump – it has been revealed.
Oculus co-founder Palmer Luckey was said to have come under intense pressure from Facebook’s leading figures after it emerged he had donated $10,000 to an anti-Hillary Clinton group during the 2016 Presidential election.
According to correspondence revealed by the Wall Street Journal, the revelation about his donation sparked a furore which saw him fired six months later.
Facebook higher-ups including founder Mark Zuckerberg himself were said to have attempted to pressgang Luckey into publicly supporting libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson.
Sources said after he refused to support Johnson to draw attention away from his donation, Luckey was put on indefinite leave, and eventually fired.
Zuckerberg, however, claimed Luckey’s departure had nothing to do with politics while testifying before Congress about data privacy earlier this year.
Shortly after his dismissal Luckey, 26, allegedly hired an employment lawyer who argued Facebook had violated California law in pressuring the executive to voice support for Mr. Johnson and for punishing an employee for political activity.
Luckey and his lawyer were then able to negotiate a payout of at least $100 million, in stock awards and bonuses he would have received until July 2019.
A Facebook spokeswoman said in an email: ‘We can say unequivocally that Palmer’s departure was not due to his political views. We’re grateful for Palmer’s contributions to Oculus, and we’re glad he continues to actively support the VR industry.’
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