[ad_1]
Facebook Inc. used a political opposition research group to try to link a critical social media group to billionaire liberal George Soros last summer, according to a bomb report released Wednesday afternoon.
The New York Times has published a long and detailed account of how Facebook
FB + 1.45%
have reacted to a series of crises over the past three years, including misinformation about Russia in the 2016 elections, inflammatory remarks by President Donald Trump and the confidential Cambridge Analytica data scandal.
According to the report, Facebook executives, including Managing Director Mark Zuckerberg and Operations Director Sheryl Sandberg, were lagging behind in Russia's misinformation campaign. Over the next two years, they made crucial decisions to their subordinates. true extent of the problems.
After two years of bad publicity, Facebook has decided to go on the offensive in 2018, by engaging Definers, a Republican-related public relations company known for its research on political opposition and offensive advertising, so to fight critics, said the Times.
See also: For the first time, researchers say Facebook can cause depression
"Although Mr. Zuckerberg has organized a public apology tour over the past year, Ms. Sandberg has overseen an aggressive lobbying campaign aimed at fighting Facebook critics, displacing public anger at corporations. rival and remove any damaging regulations, "the Times reported. "Facebook has called on a Republican law firm to discredit militant protesters, including linking them to liberal financier George Soros. She also leveraged her business relations, persuading a Jewish civil rights group to criticize society as anti-Semitic. "
At the same time, the Times said that the conservative news site NTK Network, affiliated with Definers, had published numerous articles tearing apart rival technology giants Apple Inc.
AAPL, -2.82%
and Alphabet Inc.
GOOGL, + 0.63%
GOOG, + 0.73%
Google for their business practices.
Zuckerberg was reportedly infuriated by comments from Apple CEO Tim Cook, who earlier this year had criticized Facebook's privacy concerns and ordered his management team to use only Android phones, rather than iPhones.
The report also said Facebook's leaders, including public policy chief Joel Kaplan, were too cautious about the public's reaction to the scope of the fake pages run by Russia.
Opinion: Facebook is one of Wall Street's least undemocratic values
"If Facebook implied more Russia," said Kaplan, "Republicans would accuse society of taking sides with Democrats," Times said. "And if Facebook removed fake Russians' pages, regular Facebook users could also react indignantly after being deceived: his own mother-in-law, Kaplan said, had followed a Facebook page created by Russian trolls."
Leaders were also torn by how to respond to inflammatory speeches.
A Facebook article published in 2015 by then-candidate Donald Trump calling for a ban on Muslim immigrants sounded the red knell, said the Times, Zuckerberg asking if this violated the terms of use from Facebook. While some members of society thought they had the opportunity to take a stand against hate speech, Kaplan claimed that blocking Trump would be perceived as a restriction of freedom of expression and could provoke a violent reaction from conservatives.
"Do not sting the bear," Kaplan warned.
Facebook shares are down more than 18% so far compared to the S & P 500
SPX, -0.76%
1% gain. Shares traded about 0.6% lower after normal trading hours on Wednesday after the report was released just after the market closed.
Source link
