- After an internal memo from its outgoing head of public policy Elliot Schrage leaked, Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) has published the memo in full, where Schrage takes responsibility for hiring the PR firm Definers.
- That effectively provides cover for denials about the firm from CEO Mark Zuckerberg and COO Sheryl Sandberg in the wake of a scathing NYT piece on Facebook leadership. And Sandberg has commented on the memo as well.
- The Republican-backing opposition research firm (mentioned in the NYT piece) was originally tapped by Facebook to monitor press coverage of the company before expanding its work to include going aggressively after competitors.
- That included promoting conspiracy theories tying Facebook criticism to Democratic donor George Soros, who had called the company a "menace to society." "We had not heard such criticism from him before and wanted to determine if he had any financial motivation," Schrage writes.
- "Responsibility for these decisions rests with leadership of the Communications team," he goes on. "That’s me. Mark and Sheryl relied on me to manage this without controversy."
- He justifies the use of opposition research to tackle Facebook's opponents. But Facebook didn't ask Definers to distribute or create fake news, he says.
- Sandberg added comment at the bottom: "I want to be clear that I oversee our Comms team and take full responsibility for their work and the PR firms who work with us.
- "When I read the story in New York Times last week, I didn’t remember a firm called Definers. I asked our team to look into the work Definers did for us and to double-check whether anything had crossed my desk. Some of their work was incorporated into materials presented to me and I received a small number of emails where Definers was referenced.
- "I also want to emphasize that it was never anyone’s intention to play into an anti-Semitic narrative against Mr. Soros or anyone else," she writes.
- Now read: Daily Insider Ratings Round Up 11/15/18
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