Facebook’s outgoing communications and policy head on Wednesday confirmed the company asked a Republican-affiliated public affairs firm based in Washington to conduct opposition research into liberal Jewish billionaire George Soros.
“In January 2018, investor and philanthropist George Soros attacked Facebook in a speech at Davos, calling us a ‘menace to society,'” Elliot Schrage wrote in a statement. “We had not heard such criticism from him before and wanted to determine if he had any financial motivation. Definers researched this using public information.”
“Later, when the ‘Freedom from Facebook’ campaign emerged as a so-called grassroots coalition, the team asked Definers to help understand the groups behind them,” Schrage said. “They learned that George Soros was funding several of the coalition members. They prepared documents and distributed these to the press to show that this was not simply a spontaneous grassroots movement.”
Facebook first hired Definers in 2017 as part of a strategy to broaden its outreach after the 2016 presidential election and Facebook’s role in facilitating Russia interference in the contest. The relationship between the two entities is currently under review.
Facebook’s contract with Definers was first reported earlier in November by the New York Times. Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg told reporters in a conference call after the story broke that he and COO Sheryl Sandberg were unaware of the relationship, saying the work it conducted was “not the kind of thing we want to be involved with here.”
Schrage, who announced in June he would be stepping down from his post following the controversy surrounding Cambridge Analytica and Facebook user data, defended his decision to solicit opposition research, arguing it would be irresponsible and unprofessional to not understand Facebook’s critics. He also blasted his colleagues for airing their grievances about the practice and the fallout outside the confines of the company.
“Many people across the company feel uncomfortable finding out about this work,” Schrage said. “Many people on the Communications team feel under attack from the press and even from their colleagues. I’m deeply disappointed that so much internal discussion and finger pointing has become public. This is a serious threat to our culture and ability to work together in difficult times.”
Soros has been subjected to many anti-Semitic attacks online and in October was a target of one of the pipe bombs mailed to prominent Democrats.
Sandberg, in a statement attached to Schrage’s, said it was never Facebook’s “intention to play into an anti-Semitic narrative against Mr. Soros or anyone else.”
“Being Jewish is a core part of who I am and our company stands firmly against hate,” she wrote. “The idea that our work has been interpreted as anti-Semitic is abhorrent to me — and deeply personal.”
