Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg got emails about Definers Public Affairs

Facebook COO Sheryl
Sandberg.
Reuters

• Facebook’s outgoing communications boss Elliot Schrage
  has taken the fall for a controversial relationship with
  Definers Public Affairs.
• But COO Sherly Sandberg has now admitted that she
  received emails referencing Definers — after previously saying
  that she did not know Facebook hired the company.
• In other words, she was made aware of the Definers
  partnership, but it just didn’t register.
• Sandberg has been buffeted by a sequence of recent
  scandals at Facebook, but has the support of staff.

We’re now in week two of the news cycle on Facebook’s
relationship with Definers Public Affairs, which resulted in the
PR firm throwing shade on Facebook’s rivals and critics.

Both Mark Zuckerberg and his number two, Sheryl Sandberg, have
denied any knowledge of Definers’ activities, including its
efforts to link billionaire investor George Soros to an
anti-Facebook movement.

Instead, outgoing Head of Communications and Policy Elliot
Schrage has taken the fall. In an internal memo, published by Facebook on the eve
of Thanksgiving, Schrage said he “knew and approved of the
decision to hire Definers” but was not made aware of expanding
the firm’s mandate into a smear campaign.

Read more: Mark Zuckerberg reportedly blamed
Sheryl Sandberg for the Cambridge Analytica fallout, making her
worry for her job

“I built a management system that relies on the teams to escalate
issues if they are uncomfortable about any project, the value it
will provide or the risks that it creates,” Schrage said. “That
system failed here and I’m sorry I let you all down.”

Sandberg received emails referencing Definers

But following Schrage’s admission, we also now know that the
relationship with Definers was referenced in messages that went
right to the top of Facebook.

Responding to Schrage’s email, Sandberg admitted that she had
received a “small number of emails where Definers was referenced”
and some of the firm’s work was “incorporated into materials
presented to me.”

It follows her statement on the matter last
week, in which she said: “I did not know we hired them or
about the work they were doing.”

In other words, she was made aware of the Definers partnership,
but it just didn’t register.

Sandberg said she accepted responsibility for the matter. “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,”
she said in her email this week.

Sandberg has been buffeted by a sequence of recent scandals at
Facebook. Zuckerberg personally blamed Sandberg for Cambridge
Analytica, leaving her rattled and fearing for her job, The Wall Street Journal
reported.

But one Facebook executive said there has
been a “huge upswell” of support for her internally. “The
amount of support, and other executives who have worked with her
within the company for so many years, who are rallying around
this particular challenge has been remarkable,” said Patrick
Walker, director of media partnerships in Europe, Middle East,
and Africa.