A public affairs firm hired by Facebook provided media monitoring and public relations work covering public policy issues facing the social media giant, it said in a statement Friday.
Arlington, Va.-based Definers came under fire from a Wednesday New York Times report suggesting the group performed opposition research on Facebook critics and sought to link the anti-Facebook movement to Democratic mega-donor George Soros.
“Our public relations professionals worked with Facebook and the media to help the company roll out policy announcements regarding platform changes, policy initiatives, and company news,” Definers said in a statement Friday. “This included work on advertising and hate speech policies, addressing bias on the platform, and their efforts to crack down on inauthentic behavior on the platform.”
The group, whose leadership includes several veterans of Republican political campaigns, said its Facebook work was public — including an Axios report about its hiring in October 2017.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said Thursday he and his COO Sheryl Sandberg were not aware of the platform’s relationship with Definers. The company ended the contract with the firm Wednesday night.
Definers said in its statement that the firm’s Facebook work did not have a political bent, despite the Times report describing it as trying to blame Soros for the anti-Facebook movement.
“This practice, standard across many industries, is based on researching public records and databases available to anyone,” Definers wrote. “When we do research, each item includes a link to the source material — a standard way to ensure information is communicated in facts, not innuendo.”
