Thomson Reuters
Sandberg COO of Facebook attends a session during the annual meeting 2016 of the WEF in Davos
Thiel, Facebook's longest-serving board member, recently revealed that he has been funding lawsuits against Gawker, including one by Hulk Hogan that resulted in a $140 million jury verdict againstthe publication.
Thiel's actions could be seen to contradict Facebook's past defenses of free speech, as Business Insider's Matt Rosoff and others have written. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, who owns the Washington Post and is an investor in Business Insider, also criticized Thiel's actions.
But Facebook demurred.
"Peter did what he did on his own," Sandberg said. "We didn't know about it."
She continued that Thiel's strong views make him a valuable board member.
"We have very different board members with very different thoughts," she said. "Those people make good board members because they have strong views that they're not afraid to show them."
She also said that CEO Mark Zuckerberg won't publically address Thiel's actions, even though he did publically denounce the words of board member Marc Andreeseen earlier this year.
The difference: Marc looked like he was speaking for Facebook in commenting on its Free Basics program in India, while Thiel's actions aren't related to Facebook.
Disclosure: Jeff Bezos is an investor in Business Insider through hispersonal investment company Bezos Expeditions.