- A former key Facebook executive has reignited discussion over the 2016 firing of Oculus founder Palmer Luckey.
- Former Oculus CTO and former Meta VR executive John Carmack said on X that he regrets not defending Luckey.
- The posts prompted Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth and Luckey himself to weigh in on the discussion.
John Carmack, a key player in Meta’s foray into virtual reality, comes to the defense of Oculus founder Palmer Luckey, some eight years after the tech giant fired him amid scrutiny over Luckey’s political donations. in 2016.
And Carmack’s comments prompted some seemingly defensive responses from Facebook owner Meta’s current CTO, and then from Luckey himself.
In a series of -Hillary Clinton.
“We were in different states and divisions, and I was largely out of the political loop, but when I realized the situation I should have made a clear and open statement of opposition to the witch hunts,” Carmack wrote.
According to Carmack, things might have been different if Luckey had a “unified front of Oculus founders behind him.” Carmack and Luckey joined Facebook after it acquired Oculus, the virtual reality company Luckey founded in 2012, for $2 billion in 2014.
Although he admitted that he could not confirm that the firing had anything to do with Luckey’s political ties, Carmack cited “hysterical internal employee pressure” as the reason he believed it happened, and said that “politics were openly present.” ” on Facebook.
Luckey’s impeachment occurred in 2016, the year of the presidential election between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. She had made headlines for donating $10,000 to an anti-Clinton political group, stoking anger among some members of the tech community during the heated election.
After his departure, Luckey negotiated a payment of at least $100 million from the company, according to The Wall Street Journal. He and his attorney reportedly argued that Meta violated a California law by firing Luckey. Since then, he worked at the defense startup Anduril, which he founded in 2017.
The comments from Carmack, who left his position at Meta in 2022 and who has been openly critical of its VR efforts, later caught the attention of current Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth, who first joined the company during its inception ago. almost 20 years.
“The culture has changed a lot since you left (internal discussions have to focus on work),” Bosworth responded on defended publicly. inside the company when people were agitating around him.
But that seemed to attract the attention (and ire) of Luckey himself.
“It’s a great story to tell now that I’m back to relevance, but you’re not credible,” he responded to Bosworth.
“You publicly told everyone that my departure had nothing to do with politics, which is absolutely crazy and obviously contradicted by a lot of internal communications. It’s like saying the sky is green.”
“Don’t try to play the apolitical hero here,” Luckey told Bosworth.
“I don’t pretend to be apolitical,” Bosworth responded. “I certainly have my own politics, probably different than yours, but internally at the time I was certainly clear that I thought someone’s political beliefs should have no employment consequences.” Meta previously told the WSJ that Palmer’s departure was not “unequivocally” due to his political views.
But Luckey, whom Forbes has declared a billionaire, was not reassured by that.
“I’m willing to reveal everything. We can make everything public and let people judge for themselves. Just say the word,” he responded on X.
“I’m not the one who has anything to lose, so I don’t think it’s my decision,” Bosworth responded.
Watch this space.
Business Insider reached out to representatives for Bosworth, Carmack and Luckey but did not receive an immediate response.
#Oculus #executive #regrets #defending #Palmer #Luckey