Sheryl Sandberg did not know Facebook hired PR firm Definers

Sheryl
Sandberg testifying at the Senate Intelligence Committee in
September with Jack Dorsey.
Drew
Angerer/Getty Images

• Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg has responded to
  the bombshell New York Times report on mismanagement at the
  company.
• In a Facebook post, Sandberg said she had no idea
  Facebook hired a PR firm to smear the company’s critics,
  including billionaire George Soros.
• CEO Mark Zuckerberg said Facebook’s communications team
  was to blame.
• Sandberg also denied suggestions that she blocked
  internal investigations into Russian interference.

Facebook’s COO Sheryl Sandberg has responded to
the 6,000-word New York Times exposé on the company’s chaotic
leadership in
a Facebook post on Thursday.

Sandberg joined CEO Mark Zuckerberg in saying that she had no
idea about
Facebook’s involvement with a PR firm called Definers Public
Affairs, which reportedly disseminated research to
journalists showing billionaire George Soros was quietly funding
anti-Facebook movements.

“I did not know we hired them or about the work they were doing,
but I should have,” she wrote.

Facebook cut ties with Definers less than 24 hours after the
Times’ story broke. Zuckerberg said he only found about the
relationship after reading the Times’ report. In an 80-minute
call with journalists on Thursday, he said someone on Facebook’s
communications team “must have hired them.”

USA Today reporter Jessica Guynn summed up the
exchange:

Facebook’s communications team was led by Elliot Schrage until he
quit this summer. He has now been succeeded by former British
deputy prime minister Nick Clegg. Schrage said Zuckerberg and Sandberg personally
requested that he stay on as an adviser, which he has agreed
to do.

A subsequent article from the Times delved deeper into the
tactics Definers employed to push negative press about Facebook’s
critics. Apart from Soros, Definers also sent information to
journalists about the US senators who grilled Sandberg along with
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey in September.

Definers sent reporters a list of the tracking tools the
senators’ websites used, as well as how much cash each senator
had spent on Facebook ads — the aim being to push journalists
into portraying the senators as hypocrites for scrutinising
Facebook.

Read more:

Sheryl Sandberg repeatedly tried to downplay Russia’s involvement
in misinformation on Facebook, report says

Elsewhere in Sandberg’s post, she denied suggestions that she
blocked internal investigations into Russian interference. “Mark
and I have said many times we were too slow. But to suggest that
we weren’t interested in knowing the truth, or we wanted to hide
what we knew, or that we tried to prevent investigations, is
simply untrue,” she wrote.

You can read Sandberg’s full post here:

I want to address some of the claims that have been made in the
last 24 hours.

On a number of issues – including spotting and understanding the
Russian interference we saw in the 2016 election – Mark and I
have said many times we were too slow. But to suggest that we
weren’t interested in knowing the truth, or we wanted to hide
what we knew, or that we tried to prevent investigations, is
simply untrue. The allegations saying I personally stood in the
way are also just plain wrong. This was an investigation of a
foreign actor trying to interfere in our election. Nothing could
be more important to me or to Facebook.

As Mark and I both told Congress, leading up to Election Day in
November 2016, we detected and dealt with several threats with
ties to Russia and reported what we found to law enforcement.
These were known traditional cyberattacks like hacking and
malware. It was not until after the election that we became aware
of the widespread misinformation campaigns run by the IRA. Once
we were, we began investing heavily in more people and better
technology to protect our platform. While we will always have
more work to do, I believe we’ve started to see some of that work
pay off, as we saw in the recent US midterms and elections around
the world where we have found and taken down further attempts at
interference.

I also want to address the issue that has been raised about a PR
firm, Definers. We’re no longer working with them but at the
time, they were trying to show that some of the activity against
us that appeared to be grassroots also had major organizations
behind them. I did not know we hired them or about the work they
were doing, but I should have. I have great respect for George
Soros – and the anti-Semitic conspiracy theories against him are
abhorrent.

At Facebook, we are making the investments that we need to stamp
out abuse in our system and ensure the good things people love
about Facebook can keep happening. It won’t be easy. It will take
time and will never be complete. This mission is critical and I
am committed to seeing it through.