Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg defended Facebook board member Peter Thiel’s support of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump in a post that invoked the importance of “diversity” for the social media company. One of the co-founders of PayPal, Thiel was an early Facebook investor who maintains deep connections and influence in Silicon Valley. In 1998, Thiel co-authored the book The Diversity Myth: Multiculturalism and Political Intolerance on Campus, which criticized Stanford University’s valuing of campus diversity. Earlier this year, Zuckerberg criticized another board member, Marc Andreessen, for his statement on Twitter that appeared to support colonial rule in India. Zuckerberg wrote then that Andreessen’s views “do not represent the way Facebook or I think at all”.

Source: The Guardian October 19, 2016 18:56 UTC