Facebook on Wednesday admitted to using a controversial public relations firm to investigate ties between hedge fund billionaire George Soros and the “Freedom From Facebook” group, the company’s head of communication and policy said in a blog post.
“In January 2018, investor and philanthropist George Soros attacked Facebook in a speech at Davos, calling us a 'menace to society.' We had not heard such criticism from him before and wanted to determine if he had any financial motivation. Definers researched this using public information,” Elliot Schrage said.
“Later, when the ‘Freedom from Facebook’ campaign emerged as a so-called grassroots coalition, the team asked Definers to help understand the groups behind them," he added, referring to groups that had been critical of the tech giant.
"They learned that George Soros was funding several of the coalition members. They prepared documents and distributed these to the press to show that this was not simply a spontaneous grassroots movement,” the Facebook statement also said.
Facebook’s admission comes a week after The New York Times published an explosive exposé on the social media giant, saying it hired Definers to conduct opposition research on the company’s critics, including Soros.
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