Meta COO Sheryl Sandberg may have buried controversial stories about Bobby Kotick

As if Activision Blizzard didn’t have enough on its plate at present, the Wall Street Journal today dropped a bombshell report involving its controversial CEO Bobby Kotick and Meta COO Sheryl Sandberg. The two were something of an executive power couple several years ago, but the Journal reports that, during the time they were together, Sandberg allegedly moved to squash some potentially damaging stories about Kotick that were due to run on MailOnline, the online component of the Daily Mail.

In 2016 and 2019, MailOnline was working on a story involving the filing of a restraining order against Kotick by an ex-girlfriend. Sandberg reportedly contacted MailOnline in order to stop the story from running, and was successful both times. On top of that, some of the Journal’s sources claimed that Kotick was heard saying that Sandberg had threatened MailOnline in order to stop the story from going to print, although sources at the Daily Mail claimed they did not feel threatened.

Sandberg has a reputation for championing women’s rights, and founded the nonprofit LeanIn back in 2013. As such, the allegations are a particularly bad look. Meta is now reportedly investigating Sandberg to see if she violated company policy, but the company also made a statement to the Journal saying that she “never threatened the MailOnline’s business relationship with Facebook in order to influence an editorial decision.”