Longtime Facebook CTO resigns

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Longtime Facebook chief technology officer Mike Schroepfer is stepping down in the latest high-profile departure from the social media company as it grapples with its biggest public relations crisis since the Cambridge Analytica scandal.

According to regulatory documents released Wednesday, the Facebook veteran, a trusted lieutenant to chief executive Mark Zuckerberg, informed the company that he intended to step down on Monday.

Andrew Bosworth, another longtime Facebook executive who heads the company’s virtual and augmented reality arm, will replace Schroepfer.

The sudden upheaval comes during one of the deadliest periods in the company’s history, after the Wall Street Journal published a series of damning reports that caught the attention of politicians and policymakers.

Based on internal documents leaked by a whistleblower, reports allege serious content moderation failures within the company and suggest that it routinely buried internal searches if the results turned out to be negative. Facebook largely denied the allegations, accusing the Journal of “misrepresenting” the company’s work.

Facebook shares fell 4% on Wednesday to a two-month low.

In a post on his Facebook page, Schroepfer, who reported directly to Zuckerberg, said he would stay with the company for the remainder of the year before moving to a new part-time role as the first senior fellow of Facebook.

He cited the advisability of “devoting more time to family and personal philanthropic efforts”, adding that it was a “difficult decision because of how much I love Facebook”.

According to regulatory documents, Schroepfer “will work on initiatives such as recruiting and developing technical talent and promoting the company’s investments in artificial intelligence” in his new role as a colleague. The precise date of the transition and the terms of compensation for the change have not yet been decided, according to the documents.

The exit is the latest in a series of high-profile Facebook departures. Carolyn Everson, the company’s well-regarded advertising chief, and Fiji Simo, head of the main Facebook app, left for Instacart this summer. David Fischer, who had previously been director of revenue, also left this year.

Schroepfer’s replacement Bosworth, also known as “Boz,” recently oversaw the launch of Facebook’s first pair of smart glasses, as well as a new virtual reality desktop app. Zuckerberg has signaled plans to focus more investment and resources on augmented reality and virtual reality, including creating the metaverse, an immersive virtual world inhabited by digital avatars.

In a statement Wednesday, Zuckerberg described Schroepfer as a great leader “and also a great person and close friend”.

He added, “Boz will continue to lead Facebook Reality Labs and oversee our work in augmented reality, virtual reality and more, and as part of this transition, a few other groups will join the Boz team as well. All of this is the basis of our broader efforts to help build the Metaverse. “