Facebook reconsiders Washington approach after Times reveals hardball tactics

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg vowed to cut with "D.C.-type firms" as his company fought to escape yet another end of the furor, this time surrounding its efforts to contain the damage of Russian interference and consumer privacy violations.

A New York Times presentation published on Wednesday reveals that Facebook's efforts to defend its reputation include the public's view of liberalism. George Soros, a tactic that appears to Semitic conspiracy theories.

Story Continued Below

This This This Facebook associated Facebook associated Facebook associated Facebook associated Facebook associated Facebook associated Facebook associated Facebook associated Facebook associated Facebook associated Facebook associated Facebook associated Facebook associated Facebook associated Facebook associated Facebook associated Facebook associated Facebook associated Facebook associated Times story, about the firm's work for Facebook.

The Times said that Washington also recruited support from powerful friends in Washington, DC, as Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), To be able to hamper its business. And it went to pains to seek favor with conservatives – for example by declining to penalize then-candidate Donald Trump's attacks on Muslims in late 2015. The company said Trump's comments got a pass for newsworthiness, the same explanation the president that appears to violate platform rules.

Other major corporations routinely employ hardball tactics and curry favor with power brokers. But the revelations strike another blow to an already embattled Facebook, which has scrambled to say that it has failed to address its role as a potential vector for social ills like misinformation, foreign election interference, terrorism and human rights abuses.

Zuckerberg said Thursday that the company will review it. Earlier the same day, the company announced it was terminating its contract with political communications firm, which the Times identified as one of the key advisers that shifted to Google and questioned critics' funding sources.

Zuckerberg Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Nick Clegg, the trainer UK deputy prime minister recently recently recently Facebook Facebook Facebook Facebook Facebook Facebook Facebook Facebook Facebook Facebook Facebook Facebook Facebook Facebook Facebook Facebook Facebook Facebook Facebook Facebook Facebook Facebook Facebook Facebook Facebook

The press call, ostensibly held as a briefing on Zuckerberg and, more critically, Sandberg – a bestselling author a potential Cabinet member for Hillary Clinton.

Patrick Gaspard, President of the Soros-founded Open Society Foundations, said in a letter to Sandberg late Wednesday that he was "astonished" by the Times report.

"Wrote Gaspard, whose group is the main vehicle for Soros' donations. "To now learn that you are active in promoting these distortions is beyond the pale."

According to the Times' report, the product of a six-month investigation, Sandberg and other Facebook executives deliberately slow-march the company's response to Russian manipulation and other politically fraught abuses of the platform to avoid seeming to favor Democrats. Zuckerberg said that Facebook was "too slow to spot Russian interference" but it was "simply untrue" that delay was intentional. He did not deny that, as the world learned of those campaigns, Facebook under Sandberg's leadership turned to third-party firms to do battle with the company's detractors.

As illustrated in documents obtained by POLITICO, consultants and company allies depicted critics of Facebook and its leadership as anti-Semitic (Sandberg and Zuckerberg are both Jewish). And they tried to get media outlets to report on financial issues between Facebook and Soros, a long time tactical echoing of anti-Semitic conspiracy theories about Jewish financial shaping world events.

Facebook on Yesterday. Instead, Facebook said Definers was used to contact journals about "important press calls" and "to investigate funding behind its critics at the organization" Freedom from Facebook.

"The intention was to demonstrate that it was not simply a spontaneous grassroots campaign, but that it was a well-known criticism of our company," the Facebook statement said. "To suggest that this anti-semitic attack is reprehensible and untrue."

A Definers spokesperson said the research was conducted for Facebook "was entirely factual and based on public records, including public statements by one of its organizers on receiving funding from the Soros' foundation."

Silicon Valley business practices around issues like privacy – or both.

Lawmakers told POLITICO on Thursday they were troubled by the Times story.

"It's alarming. It's appalling. They said Hawaii Sen. Brian Schatz, a high-ranking and influential Democrat on the Commerce Committee. "That does not sound like a neutral platform to me. That sounds like a major corporation using its financial weight and its political interests.

Schatz said he plans in the wake of the Commerce Chairman John Thune (R-S.D.) To continue discussions on crafting privacy legislation that could add substantial federal oversight to Facebook's handling of user data.

The report also caught the attention of Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), A leading critic of Facebook and other internet companies from the top of the list. According to the Times report, Schumer, whose daughter works at Facebook, told Warner to ensure his actions do not hurt the company.

Warner declined to be discussed with Schumer. He did, however, pledge to "continue to pursue this," saying POLITICO, "The fact that it literally took place and was reluctant to take this issue seriously … is a problem."

Schumer spokesman Justin Goodman would not confirm or deny his intervention on Facebook's behalf, but defended the senator to try to "push" elections."

Schumer has "urged Senator Warner and the Senate Intelligence Committee to make this priority in their ongoing investigation of the company," Goodman said.

In concert with the congressional scrutiny, the federal investigators are probing Facebook over some of the issues that sparked the damage-control efforts in the first place. The Federal Trade Commission announced in March it would investigate the social media giant's failure to secure the data of millions of users against improper access by Cambridge Analytica, a political consulting firm connected to Trump's 2016 campaign.

Matt Stoller, Policy Director at the Open Markets Institute, One of the Definers targeted groups, told POLITICO that the FTC needs to punish and set rules in the company's behavior.

"If they do not do anything meaningful, then they need to do something," he added. "Facebook is perfectly willing to engage in tactics that reflect a total disrespect for any ethical grounding whatsoever.

"If the legal context were different, they would have to act differently," Stoller said.

Nancy Scola contributed to this report.