- A former key Facebook executive has reignited discussion over the firing of Oculus founder Palmer Luckey in 2016.
- Former Oculus CTO and former Meta VR director John Carmack said on X that he regretted not defending Luckey.
- The messages led Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth and Luckey himself to weigh in on the discussion.
John Carmack, a key player in Meta’s venture into virtual reality, comes to the defense of Oculus founder Palmer Luckey, some eight years after the tech giant fired him amid a review scrutiny of Luckey’s political donations in 2016.
And Carmack’s comments subsequently prompted seemingly defensive responses from the current CTO of Facebook owner Meta, and then Luckey himself.
In a series of X-rated posts on Saturday, Carmack expressed regret for “not doing more to support and defend” Luckey, who was ousted from Facebook in 2016 after the company received backlash following his donations to a anti-Hillary Clinton political group.
I regret not having done more to support and defend @PalmerLuckey on Facebook. We were in different states and divisions, and I was largely out of the political loop, but when I became aware of the situation, I should have made a clear and open statement of my opposition to the witch hunt.… https ://t.co /OTXBBnkK0p
– John Carmack (@ID_AA_Carmack) April 13, 2024
“We were in different states and divisions, and I was largely out of politics, but when I became aware of the situation, I should have made a clear and open statement of my opposition to hunt for witches,” Carmack wrote.
According to Carmack, things might have gone differently if Luckey had 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 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. product, and said “politics was overtly present” on Facebook.
Luckey’s ouster occurred in 2016, the year of the Hillary Clinton-Donald Trump presidential election. He had made headlines for donating $10,000 to an anti-Clinton political group, stoking anger among some in the tech community during a heated election.
Upon his departure, Luckey negotiated a payment of at least $100 million from the company, according to the Wall Street Journal. He and his lawyer reportedly argued that Meta violated a California law by firing Luckey. Since then, he has worked on the defense start-up Anduril, which he founded in 2017.
The comments from Carmack – who left his role at Meta in 2022 and has been openly critical of its VR efforts – subsequently caught the attention of Meta’s current CTO, Andrew Bosworth, who joined the company for the first time in its infancy almost 20 years ago.
“The culture has changed a lot since you left (internal discussions need to be work focused),” Bosworth responded on X. He added that he had “absolutely no idea” about Palmer’s politics from time to time time, but “defended it publicly”. inside the company when people were agitated around them.”
But it seemed to attract the attention – and anger – of Luckey himself.
“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 insane and obviously contradicted by many 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 policies, probably different from yours, but internally at the time I made it clear that I believed no employment consequences should arise from someone’s political beliefs .” Meta previously told the WSJ that Palmer’s departure was “unequivocally” not due to his political views.
But Luckey, who Forbes declared a billionaire, was not appeased by that.
“I’m ready to throw it all away. We can make it all public and let people judge for themselves. Just say the word,” he responded on X.
“I have nothing to lose, so I don’t think it’s my decision,” Bosworth responded.
Watch this place.
Business Insider contacted representatives for Bosworth, Carmack and Luckey but did not receive an immediate response.
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