Facebook ditches Definers PR firm over George Soros story

Billionaire George Soros.
Sean Gallup/Getty

• Facebook has ended its relationship with a PR firm
  which
  the New York Times reported had circulated reports to
  journalists claiming that George Soros was quietly backing
  anti-Facebook groups.
• Facebook cut ties with the Republican-linked Definers
  Public Affairs on Wednesday night, less than 24 hours after the
  Times’ explosive report.
• Soros has previously been a target for right-wing
  conspiracy theories, many of them anti-Semitic.
• Facebook admitted in a post on Thursday that Definers
  encouraged members of the press to look into ties between Soros
  and a group called “Freedom from Facebook,” and said the
  intention was to show that the group was not a “grassroots
  campaign” but rather was being funded by “a well-known critic
  of our company.”
• “To suggest that this was an anti-Semitic attack is
  reprehensible and untrue,” Facebook said.

Facebook swiftly cut ties with a PR firm after a New York Times
report said the company tried to
blame a rise in anti-Facebook sentiment on billionaire George
Soros.

Facebook
announced in a post that it ended its relationship with
Definers Public Affairs on Wednesday night, less than 24 hours
after the Times’ explosive report on the inner workings of
Facebook’s leadership having to deal with a series of scandals
broke.

Part of the Times’ report said that Definers, a PR firm with
strong links to past Republican presidential campaigns,
distributed a research report to reporters that claimed Soros was
quietly funding anti-Facebook groups, and urged reporters to dig
into the financial ties between Soros and these groups.

Read more:

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in misinformation on Facebook, report says

Soros has
frequently been a target for right-wing conspiracy theories,
many of which
bear anti-Semitic overtones. In October,
Soros was one of the 14 prominent Trump critics who were targeted
with pipe-bombs.

A person familiar with the matter
told the Times that its report prompted an outcry, and that
top execs including Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg had not
been aware of exactly what Definers had been doing.

Facebook posted this response to the Times’ characterisation of
Definers:

“The New York Times is wrong to suggest that we ever asked
Definers to pay for or write articles on Facebook’s behalf – or
to spread misinformation. Our relationship with Definers was well
known by the media – not least because they have on several
occasions sent out invitations to hundreds of journalists about
important press calls on our behalf. Definers did encourage
members of the press to look into the funding of ‘Freedom from
Facebook,’ an anti-Facebook organization. The intention was to
demonstrate that it was not simply a spontaneous grassroots
campaign, as it claimed, but supported by a well-known critic of
our company. To suggest that this was an anti-Semitic attack is
reprehensible and untrue.”

An official at Soros’ Open Society Foundations told the Times in
its initial report that the organizations had supported groups
that were members of “Freedom from Facebook” — specifically an
online racial justice organization called “Color of Change” and
progressive group founded by Soros’ son — but not “Freedom from
Facebook” itself. They also said Open Society Foundations had not
given out any grants to campaigns opposing Facebook.

You can read the full New York Times report here.