Sentiment in Silicon Valley is that Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg “doesn’t play by the rules,” according to CNBC’s Jim Cramer.
The “Mad Money” host, whose charitable trust owns shares of Facebook, said he often visits California’s major tech hub and asks people “who do you not like?” Cramer said the answer is always Zuckerberg.
“I say, ‘How about Sheryl Sandberg?’ They say, ‘No, Zuckerberg doesn’t play by the rules,'” Cramer said on “Squawk on the Street.”
“That does not mean he is not charitable,” Cramer added. “That does mean not that if you met him on a given day, maybe he would be engaging.”
Cramer spoke after word that Apple removed Facebook’s Onavo security app from the App Store because it does not comply with its privacy rules. Facebook said in a statement that it’s transparent with Onavo users. (Cramer’s charitable trust owns Apple shares.)
The controversy is yet another setback for Facebook, which is dealing with criticism for how the platform was exploited by foreign actors ahead of the 2016 election.
Cramer previously called out Zuckerberg and Sandberg for being notably silent for days after reports on March 17 that Cambridge Analytica had harvested the data of tens of millions of users of the social network without their permission.
Struggling with data leaks and fake news scandals, Facebook shares plunged 19 percent on July 26, a day after it warned about slower sales growth for the third and fourth quarters and a reduced forecast for long-term profit margins.
Facebook lost $119 billion in market value that day, the largest such one-session loss by any company in U.S. stock market history.
Since then, Facebook stock has lost another 1.7 percent as of Wednesday’s close. But miraculously, it’s only off about that same amount for all of 2018 due to a strong run from March to that fateful day in July.
Facebook did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment on Cramer’s remarks.
— CNBC’s Ari Levy contributed to this report.