Silicon Valley investor Peter Thiel will speak at the GOP’s convention, but as his own person—got that?
Shortly after news broke on Thursday that Thiel would be on the convention’s agenda, Facebook made it very clear that it had nothing—no, really, nothing—to do with his appearance despite Thiel being on the company’s board.
“Peter Thiel is attending and speaking at the RNC in his personal capacity. He is not attending on behalf of Facebook or to represent our views,” Facebook said in a statement sent to tech news site Recode. The company also added that Thiel did not need Facebook’s permission to participate in the convention.
Thiel’s participation in the Republican Party’s convention this summer is no surprise, however. In May, news surfaced that Thiel had signed up to be a Trump election delegate in San Francisco.
Get Data Sheet, Coins2Day’s technology newsletter.
This is also not the first time Facebook has denied all responsibility or ties to Thiel’s actions. In early June, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg took the stage at Recode’s conference in Rancho Palos Verde, Calif. To talk about Thiel, shortly after he had admitted that he had financed formed wrestle Hulk Hogan’s financially crippling lawsuit against Gawker.
“Peter did what he did on his own, not as a Facebook board member,” Sandberg said on stage. “We didn’t know about it.”
Facebook’s relationship with U.S. Politics has been challenging lately. A recent report about the biases against right-wing news and outlets in Facebook’s trending news sparked outrage, leading the company to invite prominent Republicans to its headquarters to discuss their concerns.
