Facebook Ends Relations With Washington Firm that Attempted to Discredit its Critics

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/15/technology/facebook-definers-soros.html

Facebook announced on Thursday that it has cut ties with the Washington based consulting firm, Definers Public Affairs, that Facebook had hired to deliberately discredit its critics. Facebook did so after a New York Times article on Wednesday that revealed Facebook shady connection with the firm. Definers Public Affairs attempted to discredit activist protesters who were critical of Facebook by linking them to the liberal financier George Soros. It also attempted to deflect criticism of Facebook by point to rivals like Google. An insider said that the top executives of Facebook including Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg were not aware of Definers Public Affairs' s connection to the social network. Facebook released a statement stating it had not hidden its connections to Definers Public Affairs, and defended that it had not spread any false information. Nevertheless, Facebook did not cite any reason for terminating its ties with Definers Public Affairs.