Published in IoT

Palmer Luckey was not fired for supporting Trump

by on13 November 2018


ZDNET thinks it was because of a property theft case

Oculus Founder Palmer Luckey was reportedly asked to leave after he donated $10,000 to an anti-Hillary Clinton group during the 2016 US presidential elections, but it turns out the truth might have been a little different.

Luckey was held up as a Trump martyr by the Wall Street Journal article, but ZDNet's Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols said that the real reason was that the virtual reality company prompted his exit lost a $500 million intellectual property theft case to game maker ZeniMax.

The Wall Street Journal claimed the firing happened because "he donated $10,000 to an anti-Hillary Clinton group" during the 2016 US Presidential campaign. But the article overlooked the fact that just before the firing Oculus lost an intellectual property (IP) theft case against game maker ZeniMax, to the tune of $500 million.

While it was true Luckey also lied about his political moves, which went well beyond donating to an anti-Hillary billboard campaign. Vaughan-Nichols said that everyone knew about that in Facebook for some time before his sacking.

Facebook has confirmed Vaughan-Nichols’ article saying that it could “say unequivocally that Palmer's departure was not due to his political views".

“Let me spell it out for you: He made some political waves. Nothing happened. He cost Facebook $500 million. He was fired. Can anyone here seriously not draw the lines between the dots?” Vaughan-Nichols’ wrote.

Apparently not the Wall Street Journal.

Last modified on 13 November 2018
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