Michael Brown 
Meta employee states he was sacked just a day before receiving performance bonuses for sharing a public company update with his wife. This incident reflects Meta’s tightening grip on internal leaks and sharing violations, regardless of the information’s previous public announcement.
The Dismissal for Sharing an Update
Riley Berton, who identifies himself as an ex-Meta Staff Software Engineer on LinkedIn, decries his termination, stating, “This is just so incredibly sad, so terribly unjustified, and so very silly.” He asserted that Meta’s aggressive enforcement of information-sharing policies has led to the termination of employees under strange circumstances. Berton forwarded a part of a public update from Meta’s chief executive officer, Mark Zuckerberg, posted on the company’s internal application, Workplace. The information regarding newer and stricter performance reviews for employees had already been leaked to Business Insider and The Verge by an anonymous source before Berton sent it to his wife.
“I want to stress that this information had already been leaked to Business Insider and The Verge by someone else (not me).”
Berton denied leaking to any third-party media, although he admitted to sending it to his wife, thus killing his career with Meta. He pointed out that had his wife simply read the post over his shoulder, or taken a picture of it with her camera phone, nothing would have come of it.
The Odd Timing of His Firing
Adding to Berton’s frustration was the timing of his firing. He claimed he was let go just one day before he was to receive his annual performance-based bonuses, having been rated “Exceeds Expectations.” “My termination date is the day before I was to receive a bonus for my outstanding performance,” he said, adding further suspicion all around.
Berton alleged this was not an isolated action. He claimed hundreds of employees at Meta had been dismissed for similar incidents. Some were fired for simply saving internal posts to personal note-taking applications. He told examples of employees who would copy-paste internal updates into Apple’s Notes app only to have that content sync with iCloud and face termination.
Meta’s Silence on the Matter
Meta has not increasingly addressed Berton’s claims. However, in earlier comments given to The Verge, spokesperson Dave Arnold indicated, “We provide regular reminders that leaking internal information, regardless of the intention, goes against our policies. We take this matter seriously and will continue to take action as we identify leaks.”
