Facebook's Sheryl Sandberg: Peter Thiel is not leaving the board

RANCHOS PALOS VERDES, California — Billionaire investor Peter Thiel never consulted or talked to Facebook about funding former pro wrestler Hulk Hogan's court battle against Gawker -- and there are no plans to remove him from Facebook's board of directors.

That was the message stressed by Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg when pressed multiple times at the annual Code Conference to address Thiel's controversial efforts to undermine Gawker and its writers through costly lawsuits that have brought it to the brink of having to sell itself.

"Peter did what he did on his own and we were not talked to about it," Sandberg said on stage. She contended that even though Thiel is a Facebook board member, "this is not a Facebook thing."

When asked directly whether Facebook intended to keep Thiel on its board of directors, Sandberg said, "Yes."

Thiel revealed last month to The New York Times that he provided funding to Hogan's legal team after Hogan sued Gawker for posting a clip of a sex tape of him on the site.

Facebook stayed noticeably silent in the days that followed, even as multiple publications including Mashable pressed for clarification on whether it condoned Thiel's actions or planned to reprimand him in any way.

Multiple media outlets called for Facebook to remove Thiel from its board, citing concerns about Facebook's relationship with the press if a board member is actively trying to undermine one or more publications. The optics were made all the worse by the fact that Facebook spent the previous weeks trying to calm an outcry over possible bias in its Trending Topics.

Even before Sandberg officially shot down the possibility of removing Thiel from the board, it appeared unlikely: Thiel was the first major investor in Facebook and has been an advisor to the company's CEO Mark Zuckerberg since the early days and a longtime member of its board. 

Sandberg defended Thiel's right to do as he wishes and speak out.

"We have very independent board members with very independent thoughts," she said. "They’re not afraid to think differently than others" And this is something, Sandberg said, they prize in board members.

Sandberg added: "These are hard issues and no one is going to pretend that when independent board members do things it's going to be easy for the companies."

She also made it clear that Thiel did this on his own time and did not use Facebook resources.

"If he did anything with Facebook resources, that would be a Facebook issue," said Sandberg.

Many in the tech community have rallied behind Thiel's efforts in recent days, calling him a hero for pushing back against Gawker, which is reviled by some in the industry for its critical and salacious coverage. 

Others, including members of the media as well as Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, suggested the dangerous precedent that waging this type of financial battle on the media could have on free speech.

"You don't want to erode those ... you don't want to create any kind of climate of fear or chill with respect to free speech norms," Bezos said this week.

Additional reporting contributed by Seth Fiegerman.

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