Facebook accused of smearing George Soros
Social media giant ‘threatening democracy’ in attempt to distract from political problems
Hannah Kuchler in New York
Facebook has been accused of threatening the values of democracy by the Open Society Foundations, after a report said the company was involved in a smear campaign against the non-profit’s founder George Soros. Politicians and a large advertising agency are among those who condemned the social network on Wednesday after a New York Times article said Facebook adopted underhanded tactics after it came under political pressure because of Russian disinformation on the platform. The story said Facebook used Definers Public Affairs, a Republican-leaning consultancy, to spread misinformation about its competitors and Mr Soros to reporters, as part of a strategy to distract from its own political problems.
Patrick Gaspard, president of the Open Society Foundations, said the strategy was “reprehensible”, “misguided” and “dangerous”. In a letter to Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook’s chief operating officer, which he also published on Twitter, he wrote: “It is disappointing to see how you have failed to monitor hate and misinformation on Facebook’s platform. To now learn that you were active in promoting these distortions is beyond the pale.”
Facebook has been struggling with political problems ever since the extent of fake news on the platform was uncovered shortly after the 2016 presidential election. The company’s problems were compounded in March 2018, when a massive data leak to Cambridge Analytica, the data analytics firm that worked with the Trump campaign, was exposed. Facebook recently hired Nick Clegg, the former UK deputy prime minister, to head its global policy and communications teams, and tried to shift the focus away from its political challenges in its earnings call last month. Neither Facebook nor Definers Public Affairs responded to a request for comment. Shares in Facebook, which are down a third from their peak in July, fell 0.7 per cent to $143.20 in after-hours trading in New York. Political pressure on Facebook resurged on Wednesday with new calls to regulate the company. David Cicilline, the Democratic congressman who will soon be chair of the antitrust subcommittee, said it was “long past time” for Congress to take action.
“Next January, Congress should get to work enacting new laws to hold concentrated economic power to account, address the corrupting influence of corporate money in our democracy, and restore the rights of Americans,” he said. In the UK, Damian Collins, an MP who has been calling for Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s chief executive, to testify in front of a grand committee of representatives from five parliaments across the world, said it was a “damning story” that underlined “why we need to hold their top people to account”. Mr Zuckerberg has declined the invitation to appear later this month in front of the committee.
R/GA, a large advertising agency based in New York, became the first of Facebook’s advertising customers to speak out about the story. “It’s time to admit we were all wrong about Facebook. It’s actually worse,” it tweeted. It’s time to admit we were all wrong about Facebook. It’s actually worse R/GA advertising agency. Joe Gabriel Simonson, a journalist at the rightwing Daily Caller, tweeted that he had been contacted by Definers six months ago and encouraged to bring up Mr Soros or what they called “Soros-like tactics” in their stories. Mr Soros, the billionaire investor and philanthropist, has been the subject of many fake news stories and conspiracy theories spread by far-right outlets. Mr Gaspard wrote that there was a “concerted rightwing effort to demonise Mr Soros”, which had contributed to death threats and the delivery of a pipe bomb to his home. “You are no doubt also aware that much of this hateful and blatantly false and anti-Semitic
information is spread via Facebook,” he said.
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