Apple Fires Newly Hired Ex-Facebook Product Manager Following Revelations of Past Misogynistic Comments

[MacRumors]

Apple has fired Antonio García Martínez, an ex-Facebook product manager and author of the controversial book "Chaos Monkeys," following public and internal calls for removal and investigation due to past misogynistic statements, The Verge reports.

Apple hired Martínez earlier this week to join its ads team, however, comments that Martínez made in the past sparked condemnation from users across social media and employees internally at Apple.

In a statement, Apple says that it highly values the diversity of its team and that those who pose a risk to its values will not be welcomed at the company.

At Apple, we have always strived to create an inclusive, welcoming workplace where everyone is respected and accepted. Behavior that demeans or discriminates against people for who they are has no place here.

A petition amongst Apple staffers, calling for his dismissal, called past remarks "misogynistic," and that his hiring "calls into question parts of our system of inclusion at Apple, including hiring panels, background checks, and our process to ensure our existing culture of inclusion is strong enough to withstand individuals who don’t share our inclusive values," according to The Verge.

Article Link: Apple Fires Newly Hired Ex-Facebook Product Manager Following Revelations of Past Misogynistic Comments

 

[TheYayAreaLiving 🎗️]

Good Job Apple! People like that don’t belong to work for a company like Apple.
🍎 🏁

 

[thesimpledrummer]

As he deserves to be. I'm surprised that he made it through the Apple HR filters. Just goes to show you, they have a hierarchy in onboarding just like any other corporation, and undesirable candidates can easily slip through the cracks.

 

[bigandtasty]

New watchbands coming soon!

 

[wanha]

No doubt he should never have been hired in the first place, but good on Apple for moving swiftly and decisively to correct their mistake.

 

[WilburMercer]

I'm not sure I agree with this.

Haven't we all said things in the past we regret?

The rule seems to be don't get caught. I'm not a fan of that.

There should be some way for people to be forgiven. Why destroy a man's life because he once said a few rude comments about the women around him?

 

[robinp]

I'm not sure I agree with this.

Haven't we all said things in the past we regret?

The rule seems to be don't get caught. I'm not a fan of that.

There should be some way for people to be forgiven. Why destroy a man's life because he once said a few rude comments about the women around him?

Saying some regretful things and apologising for them is different to doubling down on them and writing them in a best selling book.

 

[WilburMercer]

Saying some regretful things and apologising for them is different to doubling down on them and writing them in a best selling book.

I half-agree, but if you look at his book, it's clearly quite tongue in cheek and not to be taken literally.

I don't understand how slightly offending some people is now a life destroying offence. Especially when most of the offensive is fake.

What is happening to society...

 

[haruhiko]

As he deserves to be. I'm surprised that he made it through the Apple HR filters. Just goes to show you, they have a hierarchy in onboarding just like any other corporation, and undesirable candidates can easily slip through the cracks.

Just like the rogue apps that went past Apple’s app review process…😂

 

[haruhiko]

I'm not sure I agree with this.

Haven't we all said things in the past we regret?

The rule seems to be don't get caught. I'm not a fan of that.

There should be some way for people to be forgiven. Why destroy a man's life because he once said a few rude comments about the women around him?

And why Apple has to keep him if he brings nothing but trouble to the company?
It seems that he didn’t just say it but also published that in a book?

 

[B2k1977]

I half-agree, but if you look at his book, it's clearly quite tongue in cheek and not to be taken literally.

I don't understand how slightly offending some people is now a life destroying offence. Especially when most of the offensive is fake.

What is happening to society...

I think it's because people get off on the power trip of how easy it is to use social media etc. to ruin someone's life now.

 

[arcite]

I'm not sure I agree with this.

Haven't we all said things in the past we regret?

The rule seems to be don't get caught. I'm not a fan of that.

There should be some way for people to be forgiven. Why destroy a man's life because he once said a few rude comments about the women around him?

When people tell you who they are, believe them. If someone posts something blatantly racist/sexist ect..., that's who they are. And here we have this doofus who wrote an entire book about it;

“His misogynistic statements in his autobiography — such as ‘Most women in the Bay Area are soft and weak, cosseted and naive despite their claims of worldliness, and generally full of ****’ (further quoted below this letter) — directly oppose Apple’s commitment to Inclusion & Diversity.”


More than 2,000 employees signed the petition before it was published by The Verge.

 

[WilburMercer]

And why Apple has to keep him if he brings nothing but trouble to the company?
It seems that he didn’t just say it but also published that in a book?

Have you seen the book? It's not supposed to be taken literally.

I don't know how to describe it. It uses colourful language and ridiculous exaggerations. I guess for entertainment purposes.

 

[kenni417]

long thread here we go!

 

[Aiii83]

I'm not sure I agree with this.

Haven't we all said things in the past we regret?

The rule seems to be don't get caught. I'm not a fan of that.

There should be some way for people to be forgiven. Why destroy a man's life because he once said a few rude comments about the women around him?

Yeah, lets all feel sorry about the mysogynist being held accountable for things they've willingly said and published to the public. My heart goes out to them, and certainly not to the women who spoke out that had to work with them and deal with their ****.

The fact you think "getting caught" is the issue here and not the actual misogyny should be concerning to you and you should probably evaluate why that concerned you more than the actual misogyny.

 

[deckard666]

In the good old days at some companies almost anything was tolerated - luckily we have moved on and people have to take some accountability for their actions current and past and defend them or possibly not as in this case.

 

[WilburMercer]

The fact you think "getting caught" is the issue here and not the actual mysogingy should be concerning to you and you should probably evaluate why that concerned you more than the actual mysoginy.

Why are you pretending I'm excusing misogyny?

Why do people do this?!

Please stop lying.

 

[Vol Braakzakje]

So what things has he said? It’s a bit hard to take side if I have no information about his statements.

 

[mattyj2001]

I half-agree, but if you look at his book, it's clearly quite tongue in cheek and not to be taken literally.

I don't understand how slightly offending some people is now a life destroying offence. Especially when most of the offensive is fake.

What is happening to society...

I tend to agree. There's no possible way Apple didn't know about the book and likely initially planned to back him up or educate/indoctrinate him into the "Apple way", give him an opportunity to apologize, explain, grow, etc.

Instead they immediately thew him under the bus. Teen Vogue did the same thing with their new editor that said some stupid stuff on Twitter when she was 17 and ended up not standing behind her.

I don't know this guy from Job, maybe he is a real jerk, but I find it hard to believe that a company like Apple didn't know exactly what they were getting into and didn't have a plan to deal with it show everyone why they made the hire in the first place. Why did they lose their nerve so quickly?

 

[timmyh]

In an interview with Vox in 2018, Garcia Martinez said, “most people don’t care about privacy. Media elites care about it, underemployed Eurocrats care about it. And the entire privacy-industrial complex -- there’s an entire set of very loud voices who are constantly beating the drum and building media careers around this.”

- Doesn't sound awfully in line with Apple's privacy stance.

 

[WilburMercer]

So what things has he said? It’s a bit hard to take side if I have no information about his statements.

He said most of the women in San Francisco are weak naive feminists who are full of ****.

He also described a woman as being curvy and dressing well.

 

[arcite]

I tend to agree. There's no possible way Apple didn't know about the book and likely initially planned to back him up or educate/indoctrinate him into the "Apple way", give him an opportunity to apologize, explain, grow, etc.

Instead they immediately thew him under the bus. Teen Vogue did the same thing with their new editor that said some stupid stuff on Twitter when she was 17 and ended up not standing behind her.

I don't know this guy from Job, maybe he is a real jerk, but I find it hard to believe that a company like Apple didn't know exactly what they were getting into and didn't have a plan to deal with it show everyone why they made the hire in the first place. Why did they lose their nerve so quickly?

You can bet someone on the interview committee at Apple asked him "have you ever posted anything inflammatory?"....and then he lied.

 

[XciteMePls]

I feel like cancel culture is giving uneducated, uninformed masses out there in the U.S. all the more reason to hate the people who bring about such calls for justice. And they get so mad that they elect Presidents who test the limits of our democracy and only seek to divide this country further.

Stop dragging people over the coals for something stupid and immature they said when they were younger. Stop making mistakes rolled off the lips or the pen of a person the sole definition of what they are.

 

[Seanm87]

Like others have mentioned what did he actually say?

 

[Duncan-UK]

The so called diversity brigades prove yet again that they will not tolerate any dissent or diversity of opinion. One day the woke snake will eat its own tail but until then we live in a dangerous age of intolerance and puritanism.