Bulletins

Facebook CTO Mike Schroepfer is stepping down, and Andrew Bosworth is taking over

Schrep, as he's known, has been at Facebook for 13 years.

Facebook CTO Mike Schroepfer

Facebook CTO Mike Schroepfer is stepping down

Photo: Martina Albertazzi/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Longtime Facebook Chief Technology Officer Mike Schroepfer is stepping down after thirteen years and will be replaced by Andrew Bosworth, another Facebook veteran executive.


Mark Zuckerberg announced the move in an internal company memo Wednesday. Schroepfer — or Schrep, as he's known around the industry — has been a public face at the company for years and helped lead its AI development, VR teams and blockchain efforts. He will take a newly created "senior fellow" role in order to make time for his family and philanthropic efforts, he wrote in an internal blog post.

"It has been a privilege to lead our technology teams during a time of incredible growth & advancement," Schroepfer tweeted. "I am proud of what the team has achieved, from unleashing the benefits of AI & bringing VR to life to connecting more people around the world through technology." According to a new Facebook SEC filing, Schroepfer first informed the company of his plans just two days ago.

In recent years, Schroepfer has been called on repeatedly to explain and defend the way Facebook works, often in the midst of one of the company's scandals. In 2018, following revelations about how Cambridge Analytica had abused Facebook data, a UK parliamentary committee called for Zuckerberg to testify; they got Schroepfer instead. As CTO he oversaw all of Facebook's moderation and content systems, helped lead the company's shift to remote work during the pandemic and oversaw much of its push into VR and AR.

He also led a dramatic expansion in Facebook's computing capacity, helping build a world-class engineering organization that is considered on par with cloud computing giants like AWS, Microsoft and Google. Facebook opened its first data center in Prineville, Oregon in 2009, and now operates 18 data centers around the world.

Schroepfer only the latest high-profile executive to leave Facebook. Fidji Simo, who oversaw the Facebook app, left earlier this year to be Instacart's new CEO. Carolyn Everson, one of the Facebook's most important ad executives, followed suit. (Instacart has been pillaging Facebook's ranks for some time now, actually.) David Fischer, the company's chief revenue officer, said he's leaving by the end of 2021.

Bosworth — or Boz, as he's known — currently manages Facebook's augmented reality and VR teams and has been with the company since 2006. Making him CTO seems to be a signal of intent for Facebook, as it seeks to develop the hardware and software required to make the metaverse happen. He has also been one of Facebook's most visible executives talking about issues of privacy and security, particularly as he has launched products like Portal. And it's a clear step up for one of Zuckerberg's longest-serving and most senior lieutenants.

Bosworth is a different personality from Schroepfer, though. Where Schroepfer once famously teared up in an interview with The New York Times about Facebook's content moderation problems, Bosworth has shown a fondness for stirring the pot, most famously with his "The Ugly" memo that defended Facebook's actions as "de facto good" as long as the company continued to connect people, no matter the side effects or consequences. He said at the time that he didn't agree with what he'd written, and that his aim "was to bring to the surface issues I felt deserved more discussion with the broader company." Of course, that discussion is now happening in the open, in Congress and courtrooms around the world. And now Boz will be thrust into even more of it.

The news was met with concern by some former Facebook staffers, including former Director of Product Management for Civic Integrity Samidh Chakrabarti, who left the company earlier this month. "For those who care about platforms operating in societally responsible ways, I can't even begin to tell you how worrisome I find this news about a post-Schrep [Facebook]," he tweeted. "Context: After I left [Facebook] earlier this month, many existing employees asked me who could now best be their ally on matters of societal import. Who was on my short list every single time? Schrep. So this is indeed significant."

Latest Bulletins

Mobile game revenue will decline for the first time in history this year, market research firm Newzoo now says in a revised outlook for the 2022 global games market. While the whole game industry is expected to contract by 4.3% — another first since Newzoo began tracking the market in 2007 — the company is predicting a 6.4% decline in mobile game spending on top of a 4.2% decline in console game spending.

Keep ReadingShow less

Amazon is planning to lay off thousands of employees, Protocol has learned, ahead of what the company has cautioned will be a slow holiday shopping season.

Keep ReadingShow less

Google agreed to pay $391.5 million and make changes to its user privacy controls as part of a settlement with a coalition of 40 state attorneys general. The coalition accused Google of misleading customers about location-tracking practices that informed ad targeting.

Keep ReadingShow less

FTX has filed for bankruptcy and the crypto company also announced that founder Sam Bankman-Fried has resigned as CEO.

Keep ReadingShow less

Salesforce recently updated its internal policies to make it easier for managers to terminate employees for performance issues without HR involvement, Protocol has learned, a move that comes as the software giant looks to shed as many as 2,500 jobs.

Keep ReadingShow less

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said fraud and scam reports comprise the top complaint it receives about virtual currencies — and that customers are finding little help from companies when it happens.

Keep ReadingShow less

Elon Musk sent his first email to Twitter staff late Wednesday, warning of a difficult economic road ahead and telling employees they need to be in office for a minimum of 40 hours per week. "Sorry that this is my first email to the whole company, but there is no way to sugarcoat the message," he began, ominously.

Keep ReadingShow less

Binance isn’t buying FTX after all. The crypto giant said Wednesday it has decided that it “will not pursue the potential acquisition” based on a “corporate due diligence” review.

Keep ReadingShow less

On Wednesday, John Kerry unveiled a plan for a new carbon credit program aimed at mobilizing private capital to help middle-income countries transition away from coal and move toward renewable energy.

Keep ReadingShow less

Meta announced it was laying off more than 11,000 employees Wednesday morning, slashing jobs in its recruiting department and refocusing its remaining team on AI discovery, ads, and its investment in the metaverse.

"I want to take accountability for these decisions and for how we got here," Mark Zuckerberg wrote in a message to employees that was also posted online. "I know this is tough for everyone, and I’m especially sorry to those impacted."

Keep ReadingShow less

Al Gore has one mission this week at COP27, and that’s to give climate negotiators what he hopes will be a critical tool to address the crisis at hand: an independent, global inventory of greenhouse gas emissions, down to the individual facility.

The Climate TRACE coalition just released the world’s most detailed inventory of global greenhouse gas emissions, which Gore, a founding member, is unveiling on Wednesday at the United Nations climate summit in Egypt.

Keep ReadingShow less

Way back in March, your friendly Protocol Climate team offered you some tips for writing a climate plan that doesn’t suck. Surely you took that advice. But if for some reason you didn’t, the United Nations has your back.

Keep ReadingShow less

Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao said Tuesday the crypto powerhouse signed a deal to acquire rival FTX.

Keep ReadingShow less

Salesforce is preparing for a major round of layoffs that could affect as many as 2,500 workers across the software vendor, Protocol has learned, in a bid to cut costs amid a new activist investor challenge and harsh economic conditions.

Keep ReadingShow less

BlockFi has introduced a new digital assets interest product for accredited investors, after previously agreeing to shut down a yield-paying crypto product that the SEC said was illegal.

Keep ReadingShow less

The Justice Department said Monday it seized $3.4 billion worth of bitcoin stolen in the 2012 hack of the Silk Road dark web marketplace.

Keep ReadingShow less

U.S. election infrastructure is exceedingly secure, and voter fraud here is sorare it’s comparable to your annual chances of getting struck by lightning. Despite this, former President Donald Trump and a long list of allies in the Republican Party have spent the last two years questioning the overall integrity of the U.S. election system. Many of those allies are now candidates themselves, and their coordinated attack on the country’s status as a democracy is not a relic of 2020. Some have already startedrepeating these “Big Lie” charges ahead of next week’s midterms. And the social platforms that help them spread their message haveprepared few measures to stop it.

Keep ReadingShow less

The White House just laid out its climate tech priorities to reach net zero by 2050.

Keep ReadingShow less

Coinbase said Thursday that it lost more users in the third quarter. But the decline wasn’t the disastrous drop that Wall Street was expecting, and that sparked a rally in the crypto company’s shares after-hours.

Keep ReadingShow less

The Biden administration announced $9 billion in funding Wednesday to improve home efficiency, which could help support the installation of up to 500,000 heat pumps. With winter approaching and utilities warning of gas shortages, there are some major challenges facing the technology that money can be used to tackle.

Keep ReadingShow less

Block beat earnings expectations, with strong growth largely fueled by its Cash App business. Traders sent shares up more than 12% after-hours Thursday.

Keep ReadingShow less

Stripe is laying off 14% of its staff, its co-founders said Thursday, as the fintech startup must start "building differently for leaner times."

Keep ReadingShow less

Roku saw its revenue growth slow in Q3, and warned investors Wednesday that things are about to get worse: “A lot of Q4 ad campaigns are being canceled,” said Roku CEO Anthony Wood during the company’s Q4 earnings call. “We’re seeing lots of big categories pull back. Telecom, insurance … even toy marketers are planning on reducing their spending.”

Keep ReadingShow less

Green jobs and corporate climate pledges abound, but skilled sustainability professionals are scarce.

Keep ReadingShow less

Robinhood reported a drop in third-quarter revenue but also a narrower loss on Wednesday, in a sign that it might be stabilizing its business as it attempts to recover from a staggering drop in the stock and crypto trading activity that fueled its growth.

Keep ReadingShow less
Bulletins