Facebook Executives Warn Employees They Will Be Found And Terminated If They Leak Info

Executives at Facebook, including CEO Mark Zuckerberg, allegedly admitted to seeking out employees who leak information about the company and firing them, according to a new video from Project Veritas.

During a company meeting, a woman identified by Project Veritas as Internal Communication Director Melinda Davenport appeared to ask what the company is doing to handle leaks. Davenport mentioned Project Veritas had released videos that released the names of Facebook employees, allegedly putting them at risk.

“So, what are we doing to actually stop leakers?” Davenport appears to ask in the video. “And how are we keeping our colleagues safe?”

Zuckerberg said the company has “a number of efforts to find people” who leak and “terminate people and pursue the recourse that we have when we identify them,” according to the Project Veritas video. Zuckerberg then noted Facebook usually does not “talk about it, or go out of our way when we find folks who leak.”

“I think over the last year there have been more leaks than I think all of us would have wanted, but we, we also you know, find a lot of the folks and terminate them,” he added, according to the Project Veritas video.

A woman then identified by Project Veritas as Facebook Vice President and Deputy General Counsel Heidi Swartz appeared to tell employees Facebook “always [investigates the leaks] to the fullest extent possible. And when we find leakers, which we often do, we have a zero tolerance. So that means we fire them.”

Other companies have also warned employees not to leak internal information, lest they run the risk of getting terminated. Apple warned employees in 2018 to stop leaking internal documents on future plans and threatened legal and criminal charges, according to Bloomberg. Google fired one employee in 2019 after the employee allegedly leaked the names of employees and personal details to the media, Bloomberg reported. Tesla also threatened to fire employees who leak any information in 2019, according to CNBC.

Swartz explained Project Veritas had released a video alleging they uncovered Facebook’s effort to censor vaccine concerns but said that wasn’t the main issue.

“It was based on leaked documents about a health integrity program that we have in place that combats vaccine hesitancy by taking a hard stance against vaccine information – misinformation. This isn’t a new effort,” Swartz appears to say, going on to explain the greater issue is the leakers allegedly exposed the names of Facebook employees.

Swartz appeared to say the company was working on ramping up their efforts to find and fire leakers, saying all leaks are bad for the team.

“I know some people here feel that there are good leaks and there are bad leaks, but they’re all damaging and they’re not the right way to bring about change.”

“You may think you’re leaking because you want to hold leadership accountable or that you’re on the right side of history, but that is very subjective and you may not have all the information to make that call,” Swartz said in the video.

Project Veritas alleged in late May that two Facebook whistleblowers came forward with internal documents that allegedly show the company’s efforts to curb “vaccine hesitancy.”

One of the whistleblowers alleged the company uses a tier system to determine which comments should be censored or hidden, according to Project Veritas. The whistleblower allegedly told Project Veritas that “true events or facts” that raise questions about the coronavirus vaccine are allowed to be hidden. (RELATED: How Does Natural Immunity Compare To COVID-19 Vaccines)

Project Veritas released the names of five Facebook employees who allegedly created the tier system plan.

One of the alleged whistleblowers, Data Center Technician Morgan Kahmann, told Project Veritas he was terminated following the leak. Swartz also confirmed one of the leakers had been terminated, though it is unclear if she was referring specifically to Kahmann.