Departing Facebook comms chief says critics were targeted
Departing Facebook comms chief says critics were targeted
22 Nov 2018 09:40AM
SAN FRANCISCO: The outgoing head of Facebook's
communications team on Wednesday (Nov 21) took responsibility for the hiring of
a conservative consulting firm accused of using "black ops" style
techniques, acknowledging critics including investor George Soros were
targeted.
Facebook's chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg has
pledged a "thorough" review of its use of Definers to deflect
criticism from the social networking giant.
She and Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg maintain
they were surprised by a New York Times story last week that said the social
network was using Definers to link social network critics to liberal financier
George Soros.
The Hungarian-born US financier and philanthropist is a
favorite target of nationalists and anti-Semitic conspiracy theorists.
Definers was hired in 2017 as part of an effort to
diversify its advisors in Washington, in the face of growing pressure by competitors
and media companies for Facebook to be regulated by the government, Elliot
Schrage said in a message to co-workers posted online.
"We asked Definers to do what public relations firms
typically do to support a company - sending us press clippings, conducting
research, writing messaging documents, and reaching out to reporters,"
Schrage said.
"As the pressure on Facebook built throughout the
year, the Communications team used Definers more and more."
Definers began looking into Soros after the philanthropist
labelled Facebook a "menace to society" in a speech at Davos early
this year, according to Schrage.
"We had not heard such criticism from him before and
wanted to determine if he had any financial motivation," Schrage said.
"Definers researched this using public
information."
When a "Freedom from Facebook" campaign later
began portrayed as a grassroots coalition, Definers determined that Soros was
funding some coalition members and shared what they learned with the press,
according to Schrage.
He contended that as pressure intensified on Facebook
through this year, the communications team increasingly used Definers and the
relationship was "less centrally managed."
Definers work grew to include looking into Facebook
competitors, according to Schrage.
"Responsibility for these decisions rests with
leadership of the Communications team," Schrage said.
"That's me."
He joined Zuckerberg and Sandberg in stressing that
Definers was not hired to create or spread false stories about Facebook. Zuckerberg
said Facebook stopped using Definers the day the New York Times story was
published.
Schrage taking the hit for the controversy was seen by
some as convenient, since he announced in June that he was leaving the social
network after working there for more than a decade to start a new chapter in
life.
Source: AFP/aa
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