Facebook is currently in the middle of a storm, ignited by a New York Times article. The article claimed that the company is using controversial PR practices against those who accuse them of wrongdoings.
According to the report, Facebook encouraged journalists to investigate the following. The company wanted to surney whether there were financial ties between billionaire George Soros and an anti-Facebook movement. He requested to smear critics of the social network as being anti-Semitic. Meanwhile, the New York Times is saying that the company ordered the publication of disparaging articles about rivals. He restricted posts about Russian interference in the US election.
A new document released by the PR Firm Definers claims that George Soros is in fact a secret supporter of the Freedom from Facebook movement. Facebook’s Open Society Foundations said they did not fund any anti-Facebook campaigns, and they also stated that Facebook’s behaviour was surprising.
Facebook said that it has ended its contract with Definers and that the NY Times “is wrong to suggest that we ever asked Definers to pay or write articles on behalf of Facebook or to spread misinformation… Definers did encourage journalists to consider funding Freedom from Facebook. Our aim was to show that it was not just a spontaneous grassroots campaign. We wanted to show that it was backed by a well-known critic of our company. To suggest that this was an anti-Semitic attack is reprehensible and untrue,” they claimed.
Facebook’s chief executive and founder, Mark Zuckerberg, said that neither he nor his COO knew about Definers’ actions, stressing that Facebook is no longer working with the company.
Speaking to reporters,Zuckerberg said that our intention was not to attack individuals, but to show how an organisation presents itself as grassroots effort, not a spontaneous one “I have tremendous respect for George Soros,” he said. He said, however, that “someone on our communications team must have hired Definers Also, Cheryl (Sandberg) was not involved either. She must have found out about it when I found out about it,” Zuckerberg said.
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Author: PC-GR
The World of Technology
