Joel Kaplan

Kaplan's role for the first three years, he's one of a number of elder statesman types surrounding a younger Zuckerberg who has increasingly realized that the reach of his company is going to be entangled in policy matters in Washington. Senator, we run ads. I see.

It's during this period, you call it sort of from 2011 to 2016, that Kaplan, if not a mentor, is sort of described by colleagues as sort of an older brother figure to a younger Zuckerberg. He's accompanying Zuckerberg to tech summits in the Obama Oval Office.

It's during this period, you call it sort of from 2011 to 2016, that Kaplan, if not a mentor, is sort of described by colleagues as sort of an older brother figure to a younger Zuckerberg. He's accompanying Zuckerberg to tech summits in the Obama Oval Office.

It's during this period, you call it sort of from 2011 to 2016, that Kaplan, if not a mentor, is sort of described by colleagues as sort of an older brother figure to a younger Zuckerberg. He's accompanying Zuckerberg to tech summits in the Obama Oval Office.

By the time Kaplan comes out of those eight years in the Bush White House, he's got a reputation as a real bipartisan impresario. So Kaplan is a certain breed of Bush conservative that is open-handed and warm and interested in bipartisan compromise. And it's part of why he's so prolific and such a valuable asset to any lobbying operation or company, but especially to Facebook.

By the time Kaplan comes out of those eight years in the Bush White House, he's got a reputation as a real bipartisan impresario. So Kaplan is a certain breed of Bush conservative that is open-handed and warm and interested in bipartisan compromise. And it's part of why he's so prolific and such a valuable asset to any lobbying operation or company, but especially to Facebook.

By the time Kaplan comes out of those eight years in the Bush White House, he's got a reputation as a real bipartisan impresario. So Kaplan is a certain breed of Bush conservative that is open-handed and warm and interested in bipartisan compromise. And it's part of why he's so prolific and such a valuable asset to any lobbying operation or company, but especially to Facebook.

There are lots of these moments where Facebook is growing. It stumbles on some kind of tripwire of conservative politics it didn't know was there. And the company sort of frantically looks around and says, who do we have who's like a singular Republican operative who can help us with this problem? And over and over and over again, the answer is just Joel Kaplan, Joel Kaplan, Joel Kaplan.

There are lots of these moments where Facebook is growing. It stumbles on some kind of tripwire of conservative politics it didn't know was there. And the company sort of frantically looks around and says, who do we have who's like a singular Republican operative who can help us with this problem? And over and over and over again, the answer is just Joel Kaplan, Joel Kaplan, Joel Kaplan.

There are lots of these moments where Facebook is growing. It stumbles on some kind of tripwire of conservative politics it didn't know was there. And the company sort of frantically looks around and says, who do we have who's like a singular Republican operative who can help us with this problem? And over and over and over again, the answer is just Joel Kaplan, Joel Kaplan, Joel Kaplan.

But the real hinge moment comes in 2016. I mean, this is the first real crisis that Kaplan solves. And it's sort of a foreshadow of events. But it's a famous episode in May 2016, still known inside Facebook as sort of the Gizmodo affair. Gizmodo publishes an article alleging that Facebook's trending topics widget is biased against conservative media publishers.

But the real hinge moment comes in 2016. I mean, this is the first real crisis that Kaplan solves. And it's sort of a foreshadow of events. But it's a famous episode in May 2016, still known inside Facebook as sort of the Gizmodo affair. Gizmodo publishes an article alleging that Facebook's trending topics widget is biased against conservative media publishers.

But the real hinge moment comes in 2016. I mean, this is the first real crisis that Kaplan solves. And it's sort of a foreshadow of events. But it's a famous episode in May 2016, still known inside Facebook as sort of the Gizmodo affair. Gizmodo publishes an article alleging that Facebook's trending topics widget is biased against conservative media publishers.

Kaplan calls an old friend who's working on the Trump campaign and he designs this summit at Menlo Park where he's going to bring in these conservative media heavyweights, more than a dozen of these big-name guests. They include Tucker Carlson and Glenn Beck and Dana Perino. And they get sort of this VIP treatment. Zuckerberg gives a seminar where he –

Kaplan calls an old friend who's working on the Trump campaign and he designs this summit at Menlo Park where he's going to bring in these conservative media heavyweights, more than a dozen of these big-name guests. They include Tucker Carlson and Glenn Beck and Dana Perino. And they get sort of this VIP treatment. Zuckerberg gives a seminar where he –

Kaplan calls an old friend who's working on the Trump campaign and he designs this summit at Menlo Park where he's going to bring in these conservative media heavyweights, more than a dozen of these big-name guests. They include Tucker Carlson and Glenn Beck and Dana Perino. And they get sort of this VIP treatment. Zuckerberg gives a seminar where he –

explains to them the problem, what they're doing, how they're going to solve this and sort of finesse and massage and charms them. And Kaplan, of course, is preparing the summit, briefing Zuckerberg, walking him through the talking points. And it works. When the conservatives kind of come back from the summit, the consensus is that, you know, Kaplan sort of put out this four-alarm fire.

explains to them the problem, what they're doing, how they're going to solve this and sort of finesse and massage and charms them. And Kaplan, of course, is preparing the summit, briefing Zuckerberg, walking him through the talking points. And it works. When the conservatives kind of come back from the summit, the consensus is that, you know, Kaplan sort of put out this four-alarm fire.

explains to them the problem, what they're doing, how they're going to solve this and sort of finesse and massage and charms them. And Kaplan, of course, is preparing the summit, briefing Zuckerberg, walking him through the talking points. And it works. When the conservatives kind of come back from the summit, the consensus is that, you know, Kaplan sort of put out this four-alarm fire.

The trending topics widget controversy showed three things. One, that there were these political landmines that Zuckerberg and Facebook might not realize exist. Two, that Kaplan was the person that could navigate Zuckerberg and the company around them. And three, just as often as not, those types of landmines were about content and speech and the speech product.