Topics
up-to-the-minute
AI
Amazon
Image Credits:Kelly Stonelake /
Apps
Biotech & Health
Climate
Image Credits:Kelly Stonelake /
Cloud Computing
Commerce Department
Crypto
endeavour
EVs
Fintech
fund raise
widget
Gaming
Government & Policy
ironware
layoff
Media & Entertainment
Meta
Microsoft
Privacy
Robotics
Security
Social
blank
Startups
TikTok
Transportation
Venture
More from TechCrunch
result
Startup Battlefield
StrictlyVC
Podcasts
Videos
Partner Content
TechCrunch Brand Studio
Crunchboard
Contact Us
One of Meta ’s earliest employees is litigate the company for sexual torment , sex favoritism , and revenge , according to a lawsuit register this hebdomad in the state of Washington .
Kelly Stonelake , who spent 15 yr at the troupe and rise to the rank of director , allegesin the lawsuitshe faced a cycle of gender - based secernment and harassment that persisted from concisely after her hiring in 2009 to when she was lay off in January 2024 .
She alleges in the lawsuit that Meta failed to take action at law after she reported intimate harassment and assault ; retaliated against her after she flagged a television secret plan product as antiblack and potentially harmful to minors ; and was routinely passed over for advancement in favour of human on her team .
By the fourth dimension she was laid off , Stonelake country in the suit she was on offer medical leave for post - traumatic stress disorder . Her mental state was so severely damaged from crop under alleged discriminatory conditions at Meta that she is still have medical treatment , concord to the causa filed in the King County Superior Court in Washington .
Meta representative Tracy Clayton go down to comment summon pending litigation .
The lawsuit come as Meta and founding father Mark Zuckerberg undergo an organic evolution that seem to be shifting to the political right wing . Zuckerberg sat behind President Trump at his inauguration , put UFC knob Dana White — a admirer , donor , and supporter of Trump — on Meta ’s circuit card , and hasstarted hiring public policy stafffrom politically right - leaning news show electrical outlet .
Meta alsoeliminated third - political party fact - checkingand halted its biggestdiversity , fairness , and cellular inclusion political program — activity that are in line withTrump ’s policies . Meanwhile , Zuckerberg went on Joe Rogan ’s podcast to threnody that companies needed “ masculine vigour ” because too much “ feminine energy ” had “ castrate ” the workplace . As of 2023,around 90%of Fortune 500 CEOs were men .
Join us at TechCrunch Sessions: AI
Exhibit at TechCrunch Sessions: AI
speak alongside her lawyer , Stonelake told TechCrunch that the events described in her lawsuit illustrate a larger form of ill-usage at Meta .
“ I decided to file the suit when it became clear that was the best , if not the only , way to drive accountability at Meta , ” she told TechCrunch . “ Meta has the chance to do damage on a scale that only tech companies can . ”
“It was supposed to be the place where we let off steam”
Stonelake start working at Facebook in 2009 , at a sentence when the “ like ” button and “ tagging ” friends in status updates were still brand - raw innovations . The company was n’t public yet , nor had it been aggrandize on the big screen in “ The Social connection . ”
She worked at the Palo Alto office , alongside world who were tenner her senior , on build opportunities for businesses to use Facebook , she narrate TechCrunch , and harmonise to her legal complaint .
In her cause , she alleges that the sexual molestation start almost at once .
During her first few weeks of employment , Stonelake say in the causa that a colleague grabbed her crotch while at a troupe social gathering called “ League . ”
League was a pop consequence for employee to commune with others amid their long , exact working 60 minutes . Top - range employee like Zuckerberg and former COO Sheryl Sandberg attended , Stonelake enjoin .
“ I played beer pong with Sheryl [ Sandberg ] on a regular basis , ” Stonelake secernate TechCrunch . “ It was supposed to be the space where we countenance off steam because everyone was do work so hard . ”
Through a representative , Sandberg declined to annotate .
Stonelake recalled jump back in electric shock when her colleague snap up her without her consent , but she was apprehensive about reporting the incident to Facebook ’s human resourcefulness section .
“ I think that ’s a pretty common experience for woman and especially young charwoman , ” Stonelake said . “ That ’s based in gravid part on experience of reporting these incidents and not going anywhere . ”
Stonelake stick around at the company . She severalise TechCrunch she was becharm with Zuckerberg ’s vision for a more affiliated public . But Stonelake alleges she soon get intimate harassment from her coach .
During a business misstep in 2011 , Stonelake alleges in the case , her manager took her out to dinner , then escorted her to her hotel room , where he set about to thrust himself on her , putting his hand down her pants . In the lawsuit , Stonelake says this same coach afterward told her she would not have a promotion unless she slept with him . When she declined , she was not promoted .
Harassment from her handler continued , she aver , and Stonelake shift to Seattle from the Palo Alto power in 2012 . Before she transferred , she reported her coach for harassment , yet no action were taken and he quell at the company for age without consequence , the lawsuit alleges .
Promotion delayed, promotion denied
Once Stonelake relocate to Seattle , she steady rise through direction until she reached the theater director level in 2017 . In this new function , Stonelake aver her manager harassed and discriminated against her , perpetuating the cycle she thought she lam long time earlier .
Stonelake details in the wooing that during the Black Lives Matter ( BLM ) protestation in 2020 , she confronted her manager because he changed his Facebook profile picture to a puritanical Lives affair symbolization , which is commonly seen as a rebutter to BLM . allot to the suit , she enjoin him about how the picture could be received by their diverse team , as Meta considers employees ’ personal Facebook Sir Frederick Handley Page to be reflective of the party .
“ We ’re explicitly told that our personal Facebook pages are important to count as elderly leaders of the company , ” Stonelake distinguish TechCrunch .
Stonelake ’s coach answer to her by saying , “ Black boys start out innocent , and between then and when they got [ sic ] shot by police force , they ’re getting into gangs and fuck off into crime , and the real issue are with social Robert William Service and teaching , ” the suit allege .
Stonelake went to Meta ’s human resource , but aver she received no funding . The suit of clothes claims Stonelake was double passed over for forwarding , while her manly colleagues were promoted .
“We didn’t have a plan for how we would keep people safe”
Stonelake transfer to Meta ’s Reality Labs in 2022 to lead intersection marketing for the virtual world societal internet , Horizon Worlds . She told TechCrunch that she was excited to work on such a central product in Zuckerberg ’s imagined metaverse .
Stonelake says she head “ go - to - market ” strategies to bring Horizon Worlds to broader audiences , opening entree to teenagers , international markets , and mobile twist user .
But as a leader in this product rollout , Stonelake raised concerns that Horizon Worlds did not have adequate refuge organisation to keep nonaged users off the platform ; she also allege in the suit that she sag patterns of racist behavior on the app , which proliferated due to a lack of racy subject moderation puppet .
“ The leadership squad was aware that in one test , it took an average of 34 seconds of entering the platform before users with Black embodiment were called racial slurs , include the ‘ N - word ’ and ‘ monkey , ’ ” the cause alleges .
“ We were rapidly exposit , and we did n’t have a programme for how we would keep people dependable , ” Stonelake told TechCrunch .
Stonelake says she was shut from weekly leadership meetings after she enkindle these concerns . Then , according to the suit , Stonelake was deny another promotion in January 2023 .
subsequently , she give way on emergency medical farewell to receive discourse for self-destructive thought process and post - traumatic stress disorder , concord to the suit . Stonelake was informed that she would be have go in January 2024 as part ofmass layoffsat Meta .
look back at her time at Meta , Stonelake still remember the joy of find out Zuckerberg march alongside LGBTQ+ employees and friend duringSan Francisco ’s Pride festivitiesin 2013 . She allege she felt invigorated by Zuckerberg’scommencement addressat Harvard in 2017 when he declared : “ Every generation expands the rope of hoi polloi we conceive ‘ one of us . ’ For us , it now encompasses the intact humankind . ”
Now , Stonelake articulate , she realizes those action at law may have been performative .
“ I thought that as I got more and more senior … I would only be capable to protect more people to change the culture , ” said Stonelake . “ My experience was that the more senior I draw , so did my peers , and I noticed that the more senior serviceman were , the less tolerance they had to be challenged . ”
