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By Michael Cappetta, Ben Collins and Jo Ling Kent
The conservative lobbying firm that Facebook engaged in a public relations crisis in October 2017 over Russian misinformation includes what a former employee told NBC News was an "internal fake magazine" as part of its operations. .
Facebook ties with the lobbying firm, Definers Public Affairs, were reported Wednesday in the New York Times, which explained how the group aimed to "discredit the activist protesters." [of Facebook], in part by linking them to the liberal financier George Soros ", who has become the subject of widespread theories of right-wing conspiracy for his philanthropic work.
The report gave rise to numerous criticisms and hypocrisy accusations by Facebook for its use of a lobbying company that passed stories on behalf of its clients disguised as newspaper articles. And some of the company's most inflammatory political ads for other customers have been removed by Facebook itself for violating its advertising rules.
Definers operates a website called NTK Network, which has a verified page on Facebook with over 120,000 subscribers that publishes and promotes articles about the company's customers as well as their competitors.
A former Definers employee, who asked not to be identified to protect his business relations, told NBC News that NTK Network was "our own fake newspaper store." Some customers would actively pay for the positive coverage of NTK Network. -employed employee would then be kicked out via Facebook in the hope of being picked up by bigger conservative media such as Breitbart.
An article being promoted on Facebook through the NTK Network page is promoting the page as "presenting the latest liberal-free news," according to Facebook's index of public announcements.
The former employee told NBC News that the company would tell positive stories about its customers "at the end of the day" just to "refuel" on the website and NTK Network 's feeds, even though it' s not the same. they did not specifically pay for the NTK suite of services via Definers.
NTK is currently broadcasting an announcement to promote an article published on Tuesday titled "The Conservative ITC Judge's Judgment on Apple", which refers to a patent dispute between Apple and Qualcomm. The former employee claimed that Qualcomm had a relationship with Definers.
Qualcomm and Apple declined to comment.
The revelation shows how public relations companies such as Definers have been able to surpass the efforts to create articles in the press on behalf of their clients and can now promote their own articles on Facebook under the guise of news, just as Russia has promoted misinformation and political division. rhetoric through disguised media publications. And now, it turns out that Facebook was not just the platform for this type of opposition work, but had in fact hired a practitioner to do it on his behalf.
"After a year of increasingly disturbing revelations about the scourge of misinformation on Facebook, it's still shocking to learn that Facebook itself has used the same tactics that used by bad actors to exploit its platform. -form, "said Justin Hendrix, executive director of the NYC Media Lab a university consortium focused on media technology, said.
"How can we ever trust this company?" Said Hendrix. "He is apparently more inclined to use misinformation tactics than to control them seriously."
NTK Network declined to comment.
The former employee said that Facebook had hired the company to seek out opponents of Facebook following the Russian misinformation issues. A current employee of Definers, who asked not to be named because they are not allowed to speak on behalf of the company, confirmed that Facebook had started working with the company in October 2017.
During the first month of their working relationship, Facebook's positive coverage on the NTK Network site was already operational. On October 31st, one of the titles of NTK declared: "Russian content on Facebook represents only 0.004% of the total content". The article picks up the statements made in Congress by Facebook's general counsel, Colin Stretch, who appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee in October 2017. to talk about Facebook's role in the misinformation crisis in Russia before the 2016 US elections.
Positive coverage of the site on Facebook, with no discernible negative content, continued for months, including an article titled: "Facebook's vice president: the Russian goal was to divide, not to tip the election ".
Last month, as the social media giant was still working with Definers, Facebook removed some of NTK Network's political ads for violating Facebook advertising rules, including the following: "Are these liberal billionaires the biggest threat to the Americans' second amendment rights? "
Other early-2018 Democrats attacking NTK Network announcements have been removed for "no-pay" pay-per-view, according to Facebook's advertising database.
Patrick Gaspard, president of the Open Society Foundations, the non-profit group founded by Soros, called Facebook to explain his actions.
"Your methods threaten the very values that underpin our democracy," Gaspard writes in a letter to Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook's chief operating officer. "I would appreciate the opportunity to discuss this matter with you in person and find out what steps you could take to help repair the damage caused by this deeply misguided – and dangerous – effort led to Facebook's request. . "
Asked about NTK's working relationship with the social media company, Facebook directed NBC News to a blog published late Wednesday, saying the relationship had ended its relationship with the consulting firm.
"The New York Times is wrong to suggest that we have ever asked Definers to pay or write articles for Facebook – or to spread false information," wrote Facebook in its statement.
"The supporters have encouraged members of the press to look into funding for" Freedom from Facebook, "an anti-Facebook organization," the statement said. "The intention was to demonstrate that it was not just a spontaneous popular campaign, as it claimed, but supported by a well-known critic of our society. It is reprehensible and wrong to suggest that it was an anti-Semitic attack. "
Definitors received a $ 3.3 million contract in the first quarter of 2018 from Facebook, according to government documents.
Facebook did not answer the question of whether the company was aware of the existence of NTK Network or its role in news coverage that attacked customers' enemies and pushed customer stories onto its platform, so that companies worked together.
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