Thursday, November 15, 2018

Facebook fires back at NYT over the platform’s crisis response

In a response to a response to a response, Facebook is taking on The New York Times over an article spanning an array of volatile topics that erupted in 2016.

A story in the Times describes tactics that Facebook executives—including CEO Mark Zuckerberg and COO Cheryl Sandberg—allegedly employed to limit its reputational damage after revelations surfaced about Cambridge Analytica and Russian interference in the U.S. presidential election.

The article also alleges Facebook hired an opposition research firm to discredit its critics.

The New York Times reported:

While Mr. Zuckerberg has conducted a public apology tour in the last year, Ms. Sandberg has overseen an aggressive lobbying campaign to combat Facebook’s critics, shift public anger toward rival companies and ward off damaging regulation. Facebook employed a Republican opposition-research firm to discredit activist protesters, in part by linking them to the liberal financier George Soros. It also tapped its business relationships, lobbying a Jewish civil rights group to cast some criticism of the company as anti-Semitic.

The Times article and other reporting assert that Facebook’s plan changed over time from hesitant about taking action to reactive and aggressive.

Slate reported:

In October 2017, amid a growing scandal over Russian social media meddling, Facebook began working more closely with Definers Public Affairs, an opposition-research firm based in Washington that was founded by prominent Republican operatives. Definers had originally been hired to keep tabs on press coverage, but the tech giant soon began adopting the firm’s strategy of improving its corporate image by disseminating positive news about itself and negative news about its competitors and critics, the Times reported.

[…]At around the same time, a conservative news site associated with Definers called the NTK Network began pushing out stories critical of Apple’s data collection practices. Apple CEO Tim Cook’s criticism of Facebook during the scandal reportedly angered Mark Zuckerberg. (Definers claims that another tech company has been funding its Apple campaign. Zuckerberg reportedly ordered his management team to use only Android phones.) Other NTK Network articles blasted Google and attempted to downplay the extent of Russian meddling on Facebook. NTK pieces are often recirculated by more popular conservative outlets like Breitbart, the Times reported.

Definers also attempted to spread information to damage the reputation of activists and policy experts who have been attacking Facebook. Over the summer, the firm circulated research to reporters alleging that Soros was funding much of the opposition against Facebook. Soros, often the subject of anti-Semitic conspiracy theories from the far right, had criticized Facebook and Google as monopolies during a speech at the World Economic Forum.

Facebook hits back

Facebook rejects assertions in the Times article. It shared its thoughts in an unsigned blog post, which pushes back point by point on “a number of inaccuracies in the story,” including reporting on the Russia investigation, the Muslim ban, fake news and sex-trafficking legislation.

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Facebook also denies it employed Definers to publish articles attacking its critics.

It writes, in part:

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.

Some see Facebook’s defense as a matter of interpretation.

Engadget wrote:

Except for the dates when it knew of the Russian attacks, Facebook doesn't appear to be attacking the facts of the reports, but the interpretation. For instance, the NYT never said that what Facebook did was anti-Semitic, but rather that it was using Definers to depict attacks against it as anti-Semitic. "It also tapped its business relationships, lobbying a Jewish civil rights group to cast some criticism of the company as anti-Semitic," the report stated. Many of its other responses, including the Stamos investigation, fall along the same lines -- rebutting points that the NYT never made.

Facebook said it never tried to hide its ties with Definers or asked it to spread false information. "It is wrong to suggest that we have ever asked Definers to pay for or write articles on Facebook's behalf, or communicate anything untrue," a spokesperson said. Nevertheless, last night the NYT reported that the company had cut ties with the firm.

Others see the pushback as off the mark.

Venture Beat reported:

Still, the rebuttal itself misrepresents many of the points made in the New York Times’ story.

For instance, regarding Russian manipulation, Facebook says: “The story asserts that we knew about Russian activity as early as the spring of 2016 but were slow to investigate it at every turn. This is not true.”

Actually, what the story says is that security chief Alex Stamos was alerted to the issue in the spring of 2016 and began investigating and informing people above him of the issue. But he was shocked later that year when he heard CEO Mark Zuckerberg claiming in public that allegations of Russian interference were silly. The story also states that COO Sheryl Sandberg was furious with Stamos for revealing too much information to board members, and that the company continued to minimize the issue in public for several more months.

Social media outcry

On Twitter, the news has been deeply unsettling for many:

Some seemed to see the latest news as a tipping point:

Users also shared Facebook’s response:

Tim Miller, who runs the Definers group and is named in the Times’ article, tweeted his defense of his organization’s involvement but says the report has personally “blown him up.”

What do you think of Facebook’s response, PR Daily readers?

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