Facebook’s Zuckerberg Defends Trump Supporter Peter Thiel

Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg defended venture capitalist Peter Thiel on Tuesday from a Silicon Valley backlash against him for donating money to help Donald Trump’s presidential campaign.

As Breitbart News noted on Wednesday, Thiel, who was an early investor in Facebook and remains one of its board members, has been attacked by a group of left-wing tech executives who have not only targeted Thiel, but his business partners as well.

Zuckerberg, who is an advocate for immigration reform and a politically correct enforcer on racial issues, took a surprising stand in defense of Thiel and other Trump supporters in an internal company memorandum that was made public.

Zuckerberg wrote:

I want to quickly address the questions and concerns about Peter Thiel as a board member and Trump supporter.

We care deeply about diversity. That’s easy to say when it means standing up for ideas you agree with. It’s a lot harder when it means standing up for the rights of people with different viewpoints to say what they care about.

We can’t create a culture that says it cares about diversity and then excludes almost half the country because they back a political candidate. There are many reasons a person might support Trump that do not involve racism, sexism, xenophobia or accepting sexual assault. It may be because they believe in smaller government, a different tax policy, health care system, religious issues, gun rights or any other issue where he disagrees with Hillary.

I know there are strong views on the election this year both in the US and around the world. We see them play out on Facebook every day. Our community will be stronger for all our differences — not only in areas like race and gender, but also in areas like political ideology and religion.

That’s ultimately what Facebook is about: giving everyone the power to share our experiences, so we can understand each other a bit better and connect us a little closer together.

Earlier this year, Facebook faced criticism for suppressing news from conservative sources.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. His new book, See No Evil: 19 Hard Truths the Left Can’t Handle, is available from Regnery through Amazon. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.