In thememo , Schrage doubled down on the company ’s defense of its decision to hire political research firm Definers in 2017 amid a public relations backlash from both the Cambridge Analytica data - share scandal and reports of Russian noise on Facebook during the 2016 federal election . He copped to the company ’s alleged attack to hush up Facebook ’s critic , but stopped unawares of admit to spreading aconspiracy theoryabout billionaire philanthropist George Soros :
Some of this work is being characterized as opponent research , but I believe it would be irresponsible and unprofessional for us not to interpret the background and potential conflicts of interest of our critics . This body of work can be used internally to inform our electronic messaging and where appropriate it can be share with reporters . This body of work is also useful to help reply to unjust claims where Facebook has been singled out for criticism , and to positively distinguish us from competitors .
Schrage come up to the Definers attack on Soros by writing that Facebook “ wanted to determine if he had any financial motivating ” and that the firm “ researched this using public information . ” He said the company ’s decision resulted from public critique from Soros in early 2018 during a talking to at Davos in which he draw the social culture medium giant as “ threat to smart set . ”
[ W]hen the “ Freedom from Facebook ” military campaign emerge as a so - called grassroots coalition , the squad asked Definers to avail understand the groups behind them . They learned that George Soros was fund several of the coalition members . They prepared documents and distributed these to the press to show that this was not plainly a spontaneous grassroots movement .
Schrage traverse the society distribute or created “ bastard news . ” But the assertion that Soros funded the “ Freedom from Facebook ” campaign isfalseand a factual distortion ofunrelated fundingby Soros of groups involved with the effort . In a letter to Sanders observe the Times report , Soros ’ Open Society Foundations ( OSF ) President Patrick Gaspard slammed the conflation and characterise Facebook ’s conduct as a threat to “ the very value underpinning our democracy . ”
“ The latest divine revelation that Facebook hired a PR house to discredit digital rights activists , George Soros , and the Open Society Foundations go a footstep further : a major digital weapons platform is not only hosting disinformation campaigns , but it is orchestrate and promoting them , ” OSF said in astatementto Gizmodo last week . “ We urge Facebook to stop absorb in practices inspired by the enemy of commonwealth across the Earth . ”
The decision to take the firm on is one that the company ’s CEO and man of increasinglyquestionablescruplesMark Zuckerberg hasdenied knowing about . Sandberg , for her part , has also said thatshe did n’t knowthat the party rent the business firm . As the company ’s apparentscapegoat(one it ’s deserving mention wasalready leaving the troupe ) , Schrage claim in the memo that responsibility for the house ’s hire was his own .
But in a statement that again suggests all involved party are being less than honest about the extent of their involvement with or cognition of the hire , Sanders on Wednesday seemed to change her air , arrogate that materials refer to the Definers “ crossed my desk . ”
When I take the story in New York Times last week , I did n’t remember a firm shout out Definers . I asked our team to look into the employment Definers did for us and to double - check whether anything had cross my desk . Some of their work was incorporate into materials present to me and I received a modest act of emails where Definers was referenced .
Sanders enounce in the memo that “ it was never anyone ’s intention to play into an anti - Semite narrative against Mr. Soros or anyone else ” and added that “ our workplace has been render as anti - Semitic is detestable to me — and deep personal . ”
composition in the wake of the explosive Times probe haveindicatedthat Zuckerberg holds Sandberg mostly creditworthy for the up-to-the-minute in a laundry list of scandals . Still , in a Tuesdayinterview with CNN , Zuckerberg called his longtime 2nd - in - bid a “ really important part of this company ” and said he hopes they “ work together for decades more to get along . ”
In spite of whatever Zuckerberg has been tell apart himself or hisemployees , it appear Facebook is on the nose as bad as we thought .
FacebookMark ZuckerbergSheryl Sandberg
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