Sheryl Sandberg says 'people should lose their jobs' for burying Harvey Weinstein's 'abysmal' behavior

Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook’s chief operating officer, has commented on Harvey Weinstein’s sexual abuse claims.

"The Harvey Weinstein thing is abysmal," said Sandberg while speaking at an Axios event on Thursday in Washington, D.C. "And it’s not just his behavior, it’s the behavior of everyone around him. This should never happen. When it does happen, people should lose their jobs, and what he’s going through is what every person should be afraid of, so that they don’t do it. And it just shouldn’t happen, full stop.

“Should we be discouraged?" she continued, in response to the question about reaching gender equality in workplace leadership. "Discouraged happens, but it's not gonna help us. I think we need to be determined, because I think we can do better. More diverse teams on race and gender are going to perform better, and so if we can convince people, women and men, that one [woman] in ten [board members] isn't enough, because it is a competitive advantage to have the voices around the table who are gonna make better decisions, that's when we'll succeed. We will get there."

Read more: Weinstein Co. Faces Potential Liability for Harvey's Conduct

Throughout the 40-minute chat, Sandberg also discussed Facebook’s role in last year's president election, as the platform has since identified approximately 3,000 ads that have been purchased by a group associated with the Russian government, potentially aimed to target U.S. voters. She said she met with congressional leaders and noted that Facebook is "fully cooperating" with investigators: “We will be fully transparent.” She also added that Facebook plans to hire an additional 4,000 content reviewers and 1,000 advertising reviewers to combat such activity in the future.

Sandberg joins Meryl Streep, Judi Dench, Bob Iger, George Clooney, Jennifer Lawrence, James Gunn, Leonardo DiCaprio, Brie Larson, Megan Ellison, Julianne Moore, Seth Rogen, Kevin Smith, Lena Dunham, Judd Apatow, John Oliver, Patricia Arquette and Mark Ruffalo, among others, who have spoken out on Weinstein's decades of alleged sexual assault claims, which were first detailed in last week's New York Times report and explored further in The New Yorker's expose.

Weinstein has since been fired from The Weinstein Co. and suspended by BAFTA, and USC's School of Cinematic Arts has rejected his $5 million endowment to grant scholarships to women directors. His producing credit has since been pulled from TWC's television shows, with Amazon reviewing its buzzy pair of upcoming shows from the company.

Read more: Academy Deems Harvey Weinstein Claims "Repugnant," Calls Emergency Meeting