How Definers responded: Definers and NTK have both issued statements denying any kind of shady behavior.
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Not coincidentally, he is also listed as an employee on Definers' website — Pounder is Definers' president.
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They hired this horrible group of people called The Definers, who believe in sort of aggressive ... The Definers?
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How the Definers relationship began As TechCrunch has learned, Definers began its work with Facebook through Facebook's content communications team and Facebook's director of Policy Communications, Andrea Saul, who previously worked under Definers founder Matt Rhoades on Mitt Romney's 2012 presidential campaign.
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" In response to Mother Jones' questions about the Definers contract, EPA spokesperson Nancy Grantham said, "The Definers contract is for media monitoring/newsclip compilation.
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The EPA and Definers repeatedly defended the contract, saying it is only for tracking EPA media coverage and that Definers is separate from America Rising.
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Colin Reed, managing director of Definers, said in an email that his firm simply compiled public information and what Definers did was "standard operating procedure" for public affairs outfits.
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Instead, a deputy who oversaw the communications team but is now leaving the company, Elliot J. Schrage, took responsibility for hiring Definers and initiating Definers' investigation into Mr. Soros.
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While working for Qualcomm, Definers pushed the idea that Apple's chief executive, Timothy D. Cook, was a viable presidential candidate in 2020, according to a former Definers employee and digital records.
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" Sandberg reportedly said in response to the memo that some of Definers' work "was incorporated into materials presented to me and I received a small number of emails where Definers was referenced.
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COLIN REED, SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, DEFINERS PUBLIC AFFAIRS: Yes, Dana.
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" Definers disputed those facts, describing Pishevar's accusations as "completely false.
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Lyft and Lime have since ended their work with Definers.
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The company subsequently asked Definers to focus on Mr. Soros.
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Facebook said it cut ties with Definers on Wednesday night.
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Sandberg originally claimed that she was not aware of any of the work that Definers did for Facebook, but last week back-tracked, saying that some Definers-related papers had come across her desk.
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Color of Change, one of the groups that Definers reportedly targeted on behalf of Facebook, condemned what it said was anti-Semitism when Definers emphasized the Soros connection to groups speaking out against Facebook.
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"Definers knows where the bodies are buried," the source told TechCrunch.
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The company also denied that it asked Definers to write articles.
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In Definers, the EPA now has the weapon to fight back.
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Facebook fired Definers one day after the Times article was published.
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Facebook initially hired Definers to monitor news about the social network.
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The social network also acknowledged having hired the P.R. firm Definers.
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It's hard to believe that Definers and NTK weren't working together.
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Facebook has other ties to Definers, the GOP-led opposition research group After it was set into motion, Facebook's relationship with Definers was mostly overseen by Andrea Saul, Tom Reynolds and Ruchika Budhraja in Menlo Park.
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Its president criticized Facebook over Definers Public Affairs' attacks targeted at Soros.
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Facebook has other ties to Definers, the GOP-led opposition research group
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Sandberg acknowledged that Definers' work was referenced in emails she had received.
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The tech company denied it asked Definers to disseminate any false information.
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Definers is a front for conservative operatives who run America Rising PAC.
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Definers continued to insist that it stands by its work as legitimate.
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" Tim Miller, a partner at Definers Public Affairs, called Pishevar's accusations "frivolous.
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The senators are not the only ones objecting to the Definers contract.
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Definers also linked George Soros, the liberal financier, to anti-Facebook groups.
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" Tim Miller, a partner at Definers Public Affairs, called Pishevar's accusations "frivolous.
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Sheryl Sandberg knew more of Facebook's work with Definers than she let on According to BuzzFeed, this is one of at least two documents that Definers prepared after Soros made critical remarks about Facebook and Google at Davos.
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Definers worked closely with Facebook's policy communications team, checking in through weekly calls.
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After the report came to light, Facebook said it cut ties with Definers.
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The research Definers conducted for Facebook on Soros has never been published before.
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The key thing is that Facebook admitted to sending Definers after George Soros.
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Although it's not the only tech firm caught tapping Definers' oppo research tactics.
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Generally, though, the Definers pitches we received looked nothing like traditional press releases.
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A month later the Definers operator was back pitching the same TC reporter.
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After the story broke, Zuckerberg plausibly declared that he knew nothing about Definers.
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Take your pick from chart-toppers and genre-definers with this Amazon bundle.
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As a result, Definers and the E.P.A. have decided to forgo the contract.
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Facebook fired the company, Definers Public Affairs, last week after a Times investigation.
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"The team asked Definers to help understand the groups behind them," Schrage wrote.
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I knew and approved of the decision to hire Definers and similar firms.
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Previously Sandberg said she did not know Facebook had hired Definers Public Affairs.
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In an interview with CBS This Morning two days after the Times story revealed Definers' work for Facebook, Sandberg doubled down on her earlier denial, noting that Definers was one of "lots of firms" hired by the social networking giant.
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" Sandberg wrote that she was mistaken last week when claiming that she had never heard of Definers, admitting "some of their work was incorporated into materials presented to me and I received a small number of emails where Definers was referenced.
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Zuckerberg said that neither he nor Sandberg knew that Definers even worked for them.
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Zuckerberg did not mince words about his attitude toward his company's relationship with Definers.
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Pishevar specifically charged that Definers had spread information tying him to the Russian government.
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How well the Definers brand survives its brush with Facebook remains to be seen.
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Our legal team continues to review our work with Definers to understand what happened.
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Sheryl Sandberg commented on Schrage's memo to also take responsibility for Definers, sort of.
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Federal records show the EPA will spend $120,000 on its contract with Definers Corp.
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According to its website, Definers' clients include Fortune 500 corporations, political groups, and nonprofits.
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Definers began doing some general communications work, such as running conference calls for Facebook.
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Facebook cut ties with Definers less than 24 hours after The Times' story broke.
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One other company responded, E.P.A. officials said, and Definers was chosen for the job.
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The founders of Definers, Joe Pounder and Matt Rhoades, are longtime Republican political operatives.
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He and Matt Rhoades, his partner at Definers Public Affairs, also started America Rising.
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After the Times article, other organizations also began re-evaluating their relationship with Definers.
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Mr. Miller had arrived at the right moment with his company, Definers Public Affairs.
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Blutstein is affiliated with two political-research groups, America Rising and Definers Public Affairs.
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Facebook on Thursday denied that Definers was asked to produce articles on its behalf.
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While we're continuing to review our relationship with Definers, we know the following: We asked Definers to do what public relations firms typically do to support a company — sending us press clippings, conducting research, writing messaging documents, and reaching out to reporters.
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In a private meeting on Thursday, Ms. Sandberg again distanced herself from Definers and its research into Mr. Soros, according to Rashad Robinson, head of the racial-justice group Color of Change, which was named in a Definers memo about Mr. Soros.
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Definers was also integrated more deeply into Facebook's communications operations than has previously been reported.
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He also admitted that Facebook asked Definers to conduct research on liberal financier George Soros.
|
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"I knew and approved of the decision to hire Definers and similar firms," he said.
|
|
A source says Facebook understood what was being shared by Definers before it went out.
|
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In that suit, the investor accused Definers of disseminating false information about the London incident.
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"Today I filed a request to dismiss the Definers lawsuit," he said in a statement.
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The EPA said in a statement that the Definers contract was only for monitoring coverage.
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But resentment had been building for years, and after the Definers mess the dam collapsed.
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The Alex Jones, Holocaust, Kaplan, hack, and Definers scandals had all happened in four months.
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Definers said in a statement last week it was proud to have partnered with Facebook.
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" An EPA spokeswoman said that the contract with Definers is for "media monitoring/newsclip compilation.
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Definers had circulated a document painting Soros as the impetus behind groups critical of Facebook.
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"No, we didn't know about Definers prior to the New York Times report," Robinson said.
|
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That included Definers, which circulated a document casting Soros as a force behind Facebook's agitators.
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Definers Vice President Allan Blutstein said he was probing anti-Trump "resistance" within the agency.
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Mr. Pounder said the E.P.A. would use the company's news-tracking tool called Definers Console.
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Facebook fired Definers last week, after a New York Times investigation published on Nov. 14.
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" But pushed its messaging hard: "Facebook also expanded its work with [the P.R. firm] Definers.
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Mr. Pounder and two colleagues distanced NTK from Definers after The Times's report last week.
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Following an earlier claim that she knew nothing about Definers' work with Facebook, Sandberg admitted Wednesday that she had "received a small number of emails where Definers was referenced," but said that bringing up the supposed Soros connection wasn't intended to be anti-Semitic.
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In a blog post Thursday morning, Facebook said it ended its relationship with Definers Wednesday night.
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Notably, the report detailed Facebook's relationship with Definers Public Affairs, a Washington-based opposition research firm.
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" When asked who at Facebook hired Definers if not Sandberg, she said simply, "The communications team.
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Facebook ended its relationship with Definers Public Affairs on Wednesday night, the company announced on Thursday.
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I also want to address the issue that has been raised about a PR firm, Definers.
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Though, again, Facebook has decried knowledge of exactly what Definers was up to on its behalf.
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Many have asked who, if anyone, would be fired for putting Facebook in cahoots with Definers.
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The company's outgoing head of communications and policy, Elliot Schrage, took the blame for hiring Definers.
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However, Sandberg later admitted she had received a "small number of emails where Definers was referenced."
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One of the prominent critics who was targeted by Definers was investor and philanthropist George Soros.
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I thought the Definers stuff was way overblown, but in general it's been a bad year.
|
|
Legal experts also raised questions on Friday about the nature of the agency's contract with Definers.
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Facebook confirmed on Thursday that it had ended its relationship with Definers, without citing a reason.
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The man identified himself as Aaron Goss, and said that he worked for Definers Public Affairs.
|
|
Days after the news broke, the EPA rescinded the no-bid contract with Definers Public Affairs.
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Definers did not immediately respond when asked for comment, but the firm has denied the accusation.
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That feeling was only fueled by the New York Times' report about how Facebook had hired opposition research firm Definers, whose employees tried to seed stories with journalists that defamed the social network's critics, and wrote their own biased takes for Definers-affiliated publication NTK Network.
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|
" Sandberg initially said she didn't know Facebook had hired Definers, but she admitted in a Facebook post the day before Thanksgiving that "some of their work was incorporated into materials presented to me," and that she had "received a small number of emails where Definers was referenced.
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|
Definers was recently revealed to have carried out so-called 'opposition research' on entities critical of Facebook .
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Here's everything Facebook and Sandberg have said about the company's relationship with Soros and Definers since Nov.
|
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Following the Times investigation, Facebook ended its relationship with Definers, Facebook said in a blog post Thursday.
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"I did not know about or hire Definers or any firm," she said on CBS last week.
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Last month it also emerged that other tech firms had engaged Definers — Lime being one of them.
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We hired firms associated with both Republicans and Democrats — Definers was one of the Republican-affiliated firms.
|
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Venture capitalist Shervin Pishevar on Friday dropped his lawsuit against political opposition research firm Definers Public Affairs.
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Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg also denied any knowledge of Definers before the latest New York Times report.
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A Definers spokesperson said in a statement to The Hill that the firm stands by its work.
|
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It also denied that Facebook ever contracted Definers to do opposition research-style work on its behalf.
|
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Definers reportedly advised opposition research style tactics, which means pushing out damaging content about competitors and critics.
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At first, Sandberg denied knowing anything about the Definers, though she later acknowledged that this was false.
|
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The campaign by Definers signaled an escalation of Silicon Valley's already brass-knuckled approach to public relations.
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Definers employees distributed anti-Apple research to reporters and would not say who was paying for it.
|
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Definers Vice President Allan Blutstein said he was probing anti-Trump "resistance" Read the full story here.
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A Definers spokesperson said in a statement to The Hill that the firm stands by its work.
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The New York Times reported earlier this month that Facebook hired a conservative group called Definers Public Affairs to fight some of its PR battles for it; Definers highlighted Color of Change's ties to billionaire George Soros, who is often villainized by the right in anti-Semitic attacks.
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" In an addendum to that note, Sandberg also had a small update, noting that while she "didn't remember a firm called Definers," her team later found evidence that its work was "incorporated into materials presented to me and I received a small number of emails where Definers was referenced.
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For Sandberg's hearing, Definers handled the crisis PR responding to the event and the coverage around the testimony.
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"I also want to address the issue that has been raised about a PR firm, Definers," Sandberg wrote.
|
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Facebook's dealings with Definers, if true, "may have campaign finance and other potential legal implications," the senators said.
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The day after the Times story broke, Definers announced it and the EPA had decided "forgo" the contract.
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In a blog post published early Thursday morning, Facebook said it ended its relationship with Definers Wednesday night.
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What have you heard about the Definers and their denials that they did nothing to foment fake news?
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A conservative site called NTK Network with ties to Definers also reportedly posted stories critical of Facebook's competitors.
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Facebook maintained that request was independent of what Definers ended up working on regarding Soros later that spring.
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Firing Definers and disclaiming responsibility is the epitome of the "typical D.C. relationships" Zuckerberg claimed to be eschewing.
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The statement went on to claim that Contee "misspoke" and "was inaccurate in his description of [Definers] work".
|
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What was presented at Disrupt regarding our relationship with Definers and the description of their work was inaccurate.
|
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Given his extensive experience in public policy, he likely was well aware of the nature of Definers' work.
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We hired Definers in 2017 as part of our efforts to diversify our DC advisors after the election.
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When I read the story in New York Times last week, I didn't remember a firm called Definers.
|
|
Definers was also directly connected to a dubious news operation whose stories were often picked up by Breitbart.
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In particular, Definers targeted Color of Change, a racial justice organization that counts Soros among its many funders.
|
|
Both Zuckerberg and Sandberg denied knowing about Definers' activities, and communications head Elliot Schrage instead took the fall.
|
|
Zuckerberg on Tuesday reiterated his claim that he was not aware that Definers was working on Facebook's behalf.
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Gotta tell you, how much of an asshole do you have to be to call yourself The Definers?
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Last year, Tim Miller, a Definers official and former spokesman for Jeb Bush, started a Silicon Valley chapter.
|
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Mr. Robinson said that while meeting with Ms. Sandberg, she denied hiring Definers or directing the firm's research.
|
|
Definers offers to wage political-style negative campaigns, for profit, on behalf of undisclosed private clients, including corporations.
|
|
Joe Pounder, a founder of Definers Public Affairs, said several government agencies had contacted his firm about its news-tracking tool, called Definers Console, because they were seeking a service that does a better job of keeping up with the fast-paced news cycle, including tracking of live-streamed videos.
|
|
Last week, she admitted that work produced by the Definers firm was part of materials that crossed her desk.
|
|
Zuckerberg now denies (implausibly) that either he or Sandberg had ever heard of Definers before the Times article appeared.
|
|
" Schrage also acknowledged that Definers was asked to "do work on our competitors" and "positively distinguish us from competitors.
|
|
From her post: I also want to address the issue that has been raised about a PR firm, Definers.
|
|
Since the NYT story broke, Facebook has claimed journalists were well aware that Definers was working on its behalf.
|
|
Elliot J. Schrage, the outgoing Facebook vice president of communications and public policy, has taken responsibility for hiring Definers.
|
|
Facebook has decided to stop working with the consulting firm Definers, the company wrote in a statement published Thursday.
|
|
"Lastly we wanted to address the issue of Definers, who we ended our contract with last night," Facebook wrote.
|
|
And where does the high-gloss, highly sexed figure of Tom Ford fit in that litany of decade definers?
|
|
According to federal contracting records, earlier this month Pruitt's office inked a no-bid $120,000 contract with Definers Corp.
|
|
Mr. O'Grady, whose union represents about 10,000 E.P.A. employees nationwide, called the Definers contract a threat to all employees.
|
|
The contract with Definers comes at a time of heightened tension between the news media and the Trump administration.
|
|
Pishevar in November sued Arlington, Virginia-based Definers Public Affairs and its founder, Matt Rhoades, and president, Joe Pounder.
|
|
At the same time it emerged that other tech firms had also been using Definers — Lime being one of them.
|
|
Definers did encourage members of the press to look into the funding of "Freedom from Facebook," an anti-Facebook organization.
|
|
In a call with reporters Thursday, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg denied knowing about the company's work with Definers Public Affairs.
|
|
The details: Definers Public Affairs is a consulting firm founded by former Republican campaign staffers that specializes in opposition research.
|
|
Thought experiment: what if Definers had mounted a campaign blaming the world's ills on Fox News instead of George Soros?
|
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Definers, for its part, said in November that it had not "engaged in any of the actions" that Pishevar outlined.
|
|
Definers was hired as part of a lobbying effort intended to counter mounting criticisms of Facebook over the past year.
|
|
Schrage announced his departure from Facebook well before the Definers scandal, making him a convenient out for the beleaguered company.
|
|
The company's contract work with Definers arose out of those connections, particularly through Andrea Saul, Facebook's Director of Policy Communications .
|
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Pishevar has filed a lawsuit against Definers Public Affairs, an opposition research firm, which has denied spreading information about him.
|
|
The report also said Facebook hired a PR firm called Definers Public Affairs to dig up dirt on its competitors.
|
|
To stymie the opposition, Definers painted liberal donor George Soros as the driving force behind some groups critical of Facebook.
|
|
Definers hopes to supply some of its future tech clients with the gossip, dirt and intel to win those fights.
|
|
For now, Definers won't reveal any of its tech clients, citing the fact it has signed nondisclosure agreements with them.
|
|
Zuckerberg has denied having any knowledge of Definers' work, saying that he found out about it in the Times story.
|
|
Pounder also said Definers would forgo contract bids for four other government agencies that "expressed interest" in the firm's services.
|
|
The chip maker also hired the opposition research firm Definers Public Affairs, which has distributed anti-Apple research to reporters.
|
|
Definers did encourage members of the press to look into the funding of 'Freedom from Facebook,' an anti-Facebook organization.
|
|
And here's a look at some of the tactics used by Definers, the P.R. agency that Facebook fired last week.
|
|
Definers was founded by veterans of Republican presidential campaigns and specialized in applying political campaign tactics to corporate public relations.
|
|
PERINO: And here with more Colin Reed, he&aposs a Republican strategist and senior vice president at the Definers Public Affairs.
|
|
That work included a document that Definers sent to reporters suggesting ties between George Soros and progressive political groups criticizing Facebook.
|
|
Initially, CEO Mark Zuckerberg and COO Sheryl Sandberg said they had never heard of Definers until they read the Times report.
|
|
Reporters focused on the company's decision to hire Definers Public Affairs, a Washington, DC-based public relations and opposition research firm.
|
|
Beyond Facebook's comms connections, another educated guess at the Definers culprit points to Joel Kaplan, Facebook's deeply influential longtime chief lobbyist.
|
|
That Facebook's ex-CSO is using the exact same attack points as Definers is interesting in terms of the PR alignment.
|
|
Yes. As I indicated above, Definers helped us respond to unfair claims where Facebook was been [sic] singled out for criticism.
|
|
He declared that the Definers project was his fault; it was his communications department that had hired the firm, he said.
|
|
Inside Facebook, people were furious at Sandberg, believing she had asked them to dissemble on her behalf with her Definers denials.
|
|
Definers, based in Arlington, Va., aims to evolve the D.C. model by adapting the techniques of political campaigns to corporate clients.
|
|
From Pishevar, via a spokesman: From Definers partner Tim Miller: Go deeper: Entrepreneur details first on-the-record allegations against Pishevar
|
|
Definers, in turn, helped push the narrative that critics of Facebook were being bankrolled by Soros and his Open Society Foundations.
|
|
Zuckerberg said during the call that he only learned about the company's work with Definers when he read the Times' article.
|
|
One of the ways it reportedly did so was through work with Definers, a consulting firm founded by Republican political operatives.
|
|
"Definers has been contracted to provide media monitoring services through our Console by the EPA," a company official told Mother Jones.
|
|
Definers works for numerous Republican political clients, and shares staff and offices with America Rising PAC and related GOP political groups.
|
|
On Thursday, after this article was published, Facebook said that it had ended its relationship with Definers, without citing a reason.
|
|
Mr. Miller said in a text message to The Times that Definers pitched the angle to a range of news outlets.
|
|
Whitehouse and Harris asked Pruitt to answer numerous questions about the Definers contract and provide various documents regarding it by Thursday.
|
|
"To be clear: Definers was not hired by Facebook as an opposition research firm," the PR firm wrote on its website.
|
|
Both Zuckerberg and Sandberg claimed they had no idea that Facebook was even working with Definers until the Times piece ran.
|
|
Definers Public Affairs, the firm Facebook used to smear critics, sent emails on behalf of electric scooter company Lime, TechCrunch reports.
|
|
The memo includes a Q&A regarding points raised by a New York Times article detailing how Definers worked to spread negative publicity about Google and other tech giants to make Facebook look better, and that the firm's employees also published biased articles bashing Facebook's competitors and critics through a news site called NTK Network that's affiliated with Definers.
|
|
Elliot Schrage, who announced in June that he was leaving, said his team asked Definers to push negative narratives about Facebook's competitors.
|
|
As Gaspard noted, there have been inconsistencies in Sandberg's own admission of how much she knew of Definers' work for the company.
|
|
Definers Public Affairs also reportedly pressed reporters to explore Soros' financial connections with groups that protested Facebook at Congressional hearings in July.
|
|
You can read the entire New York Times article over on its website, including details about groups like Definers and America Rising.
|
|
Some of that response is below:Lastly we wanted to address the issue of Definers, who we ended our contract with last night.
|
|
Meanwhile it's continuously struggled with scandals like hiring opposition research firm Definers, and it saw its new teen app Lasso largely flop.
|
|
There was the Alex Jones controversy; there was the data breach; and then last week there was the Definers fake-news scandal.
|
|
Definers Public Affairs has denied Pishevar's claims, calling them "completely false" and "delusional," but the lawsuit is already having a chilling effect.
|
|
Numerous people inside the company were convinced that she entirely understood what Definers did, though she strongly maintains that she did not.
|
|
" Schrage confirmed that Facebook asked Definers to "work on George Soros" in January 2018 after Soros called Facebook a "menace to society.
|
|
Sandberg first addressed the controversy over Definers in a Facebook post on November 15, but denied knowing that Facebook had hired them.
|
|
Definers sent the document, which was titled "Apple News Curators' Political Donations," as an unsolicited pitch to a CNN employee this summer.
|
|
Late last week, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) hired Definers Public Affairs to scrutinize federal regulators, track news and manipulate press coverage.
|
|
Currently, those hired guns at Definers are monitoring the dedicated watchdogs who know what information is being withheld, and are disputing it.
|
|
Tim Miller, a partner at Definers Public Affairs, said in a statement emailed to Reuters on Tuesday that Pishevar's accusations were false.
|
|
Rhoades is a former Republican campaign manager and Pounder is a former director for the Republican National Convention, according to Definers' website.
|
|
The firm had an improved way of collecting and analyzing clips, he said, noting that America Rising and Definers were distinct entities.
|
|
Facebook cut ties with the Republican-linked Definers Public Affairs on Wednesday night, less than 24 hours after the Times' explosive report.
|
|
The move followed a New York Times article on Wednesday that described the kind of work that Definers did on Facebook's behalf.
|
|
Joe Pounder is the president of Definers Public Affairs, a political consulting firm, and America Rising Corp, a Republican opposition research firm.
|
|
Definers also worked closely with a conservative news organization called NTK, and the two organizations "share offices and staff," the Times reported.
|
|
Last week, Mother Jones reported that Pruitt's EPA awarded a no-bid $120,000 contract to a media monitoring firm called Definers Public Affairs.
|
|
However, it also reported that members of the company's communications team are now furious Sandberg had allegedly thrown them under the Definers bus:Ms.
|
|
Oh, and that Zuckerberg's defense against the Definers thing was that he wasn't actually aware what was going on until after those reporters.
|
|
Scooter startup Lime has confirmed it hired Definers but claimed it didn't know the controversial PR firm would try to smear its rivals.
|
|
Facebook did not immediately respond to a request for comment about its reported hiring of Definers to spread an anti-semitic conspiracy theory.
|
|
The Times reported that Definers tried to cast the criticism of the company as pushed by George Soros, a prominent Jewish, liberal philanthropist.
|
|
I asked our team to look into the work Definers did for us and to double-check whether anything had crossed my desk.
|
|
Some of their work was incorporated into materials presented to me and I received a small number of emails where Definers was referenced.
|
|
Facebook ended its relationship with the right-leaning Definers on Wednesday as criticism mounted, including from the president of the Open Society Foundations.
|
|
Facebook said that its two most visible faces, Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg, had little, if any, knowledge of Facebook's links to Definers.
|
|
Here Is The Research Facebook Commissioned On George Soros BuzzFeed publishes some of the opposition research ginned up by Definers about George Soros.
|
|
In his lawsuit, Pishevar accused Definers of working on behalf of his "business competitors" in a bid to "assassinate" his character and career.
|
|
In his complaint, Pishevar accused Definers of spreading rumors about the incident, as well as other information in an attempt to smear him.
|
|
President of the firm, Joe Pounder, said in a statement to the Post that the Definers wouldn't offer its services to government agencies.
|
|
One of the five employees Definers said were Democrats had donated $55 to Democratic candidates and causes in 2018, according to the firm.
|
|
Facebook admitted Wednesday it hired consulting firm Definers to investigate Democratic donor and hedge fund billionaire George Soros's criticisms of the tech behemoth.
|
|
Definers officials specifically directed people to links between some left-wing groups criticizing Facebook and Open Society, the Soros-founded and -funded philanthropy.
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Mr. Zuckerberg said he terminated Facebook's relationship with Definers late on Wednesday after he learned about some of the opposition research firm's tactics.
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Top Facebook executives including Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg were not aware of the specific work being done by Definers, the person said.
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The $120,000, no-bid contract with Definers Public Affairs is reportedly for "news analysis" services, such as monitoring media stories about the EPA.
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Ms. Sandberg, who also attended the session, added that "I fully accept responsibility for Definers," according to two people familiar with the conversation.
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Facebook also worked last year with a public-relations firm, Definers Public Affairs, to urge reporters to scrutinize Apple and other tech companies.
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Definers claims that the vast majority of its work with Facebook involved monitoring press coverage for the company and helping manage policy announcements.
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The company used Definers Public Affairs to write articles criticizing the business practices of rivals Google and Apple and downplay the criticisms on Facebook's.
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For her part, Sandberg also responded to the Times report last week and said that the social network was no longer working with Definers.
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Asked about its business relationship with the PR firm, Lime's VP of global expansion Caen Contee, claimed it had not known how Definers operated.
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Outgoing Schrage last week took the rap for the debacle, but denied claims that Facebook had asked Definers to create or distribute fake news.
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Soon after Pishevar declared he was going to focus on the lawsuit, Definers Public Affairs filed a motion to dismiss his lawsuit, BuzzFeed reported.
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Soros was cast in the Definers memo as "the unacknowledged force behind what appeared to be a broad anti-Facebook movement," the Times said.
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Pishevar originally sued Definers in November, following the publication of stories in multiple outlets about an alleged rape that occurred in London in May.
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NTK, which shares a co-founder and a physical office with Definers, put out a statement saying this was was all a big coincidence.
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He admits to having the company push negative narratives about competitors, but says Facebook did not ask or pay Definers to publish fake news.
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Sandberg had previously said that she didn't initially remember Definers when she read the story by the Times, which revealed Facebook hired the firm.
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Definers is the Republican-affiliated firm the New York Times recently exposed for using opposition research tactics to spread negative news about Facebook's competitors.
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The right-leaning Definers Public Affairs has pitched itself recently as being able to help Silicon Valley navigate the world of political opposition research.
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That organization was part of a coalition of activists known as Freedom From Facebook, according to internal Definers strategy documents leaked to the Times.
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Definers had pushed the notion to journalists that the liberal financier George Soros was behind Color of Change and other groups critical of Facebook.
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That including hiring Definers, which simultaneously spread false stories that Magerman's group is backed by Soros, and that Freedom From Facebook is anti-Semitic.
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"Google is going to see long-term pain because of this," said Christian Hertenstein, vice president of the right-leaning political strategy group Definers.
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Pishevar alleged in his lawsuit that Definers were hired by business competitors and used political opposition tactics to "assassinate" his and his associates' reputations.
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Like the documents on the senators, Definers distributed other memos that sought to lay out evidence for angles that it wanted reporters to pursue.
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Definers urged reporters to explore the financial ties between Mr. Soros and Freedom From Facebook, a coalition of groups that had criticized the company.
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The protest was filed on behalf of two other companies that offer similar services to the ones that Definers had been hired to deliver.
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An E.P.A. official vehemently defended the $120,000 contract to Definers, saying it filled a need in the media office for an improved clipping service.
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And Color of Change, a civil-rights group that has been critical of the company, blasted it for hiring Definers to discredit the group.
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Among other things, Definers worked to discredit activist protesters who were against Facebook, in part by linking them to the liberal financier George Soros.
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A slick website titled "Draft Tim Cook 2020" had digital links to Definers employees, said Kyle Ehmke, a cybersecurity researcher for the firm ThreatConnect.
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Facebook hired Definers last year to monitor media coverage and then expanded its role to include campaign-style research and other public relations work.
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But when he pushed for more on Facebook's involvement with Definers, Mr. Robinson said, Ms. Sandberg kept stressing that Facebook had fired the firm.
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Facebook's relationship with Definers has been reported previously by Politico and Axios, which seem to have been better informed about Facebook than the company's CEO.
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The Times said reporters received a research document from Definers after the House hearing this summer that suggested Soros was behind a movement against Facebook.
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When Pishevar initially took a leave of absence, he said it was to focus on a defamation lawsuit he had filed against Definers Public Affairs.
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The report also detailed Facebook's work with Definers, a public relations and consulting firm whose staffers directed inflammatory coverage of Apple and other Facebook rivals.
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Two, Definers employs what one former employee told NBC News was "an in-house fake news shop" to push messages into the broader media ecosystem.
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Lean Out Kara Swisher says Sheryl Sandberg is getting too much blame over the Definers scandal and that the real blame belongs with Mark Zuckerberg.
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Still impressed with the talents of Rhoades and his team, Romney has fundraised for Definers' sister firm, the America Rising PAC, as recently as 2015.
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Yet, as we reported previously, a Definers employee sent us an email pitch in October in which it wrote suggestively that "Bird's numbers seem off".
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Later, when the "Freedom from Facebook" campaign emerged as a so-called grassroots coalition, the team asked Definers to help understand the groups behind them.
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"Those feminists who were so quick to embrace Sandberg should now publicly condemn her," Jessa Crispin wrote at the Guardian after the Definers news broke.
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Like Definers, Targeted Victory was founded by digital team members from Mitt Romney's 2012 presidential campaign who formed their own companies in the election's aftermath.
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A pair of Republican firms, Definers Public Affairs and WPA Intelligence, partnered up to conduct a survey that would gauge voter sentiment on tax reform.
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He filed a lawsuit against a U.S. political opposition research firm, Definers Public Affairs, claiming the company is engaging in a smear campaign against him.
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Facebook's head of public policy, Elliot Schrage, sent a memo to Facebook employees in which he took the blame for hiring public policy agency Definers.
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According to the article, Facebook retained the services of the public relations firm Definers Public Affairs, which had been founded by several Republican political operatives.
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Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg told reporters last week that he first learned about his company's work with of Definers when he read the Times' story.
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Sandberg had initially denied any knowledge of Facebook's relationship with Definers Public Affairs, a conservative PR firm hired by the company to do opposition research.
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Facebook admitted earlier this month that Definers "did encourage members of the press" to examine the funding of "Freedom from Facebook," an anti-Facebook group.
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The social network announced that it was cutting ties with Definers, but denied that it had urged the firm to engage in any unsavory practices.
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The revelation about Sandberg's request comes a week after Facebook admitted that it hired consulting firm Definers to investigate Soros's criticisms of the tech behemoth.
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Enter Miller and his firm Definers, as they try to offer Silicon Valley an edge with conservatives — and reap a business opportunity in the process.
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"In this case, one additional vendor responded with their qualifications and the media/news clip contract was awarded to Definers," she said in an email.
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In one case, an opposition research firm, Definers Public Affairs, worked to discredit protesters by trying to link them to George Soros, the liberal financier.
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In a statement, Facebook said it had not hidden its ties to Definers and disputed that it had asked the firm to spread false information.
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To promote clients and attack its clients' enemies, Definers regularly used NTK Network, a news aggregator with a conservative slant and 122,000 followers on Facebook.
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Not only had the firm monitored news coverage and tracked journalists, The New York Times reported, but one Definers executive had been investigating current EPA employees.
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The New York Times reported in November that Qualcomm hired Definers Public Affairs to write and spread false stories about Apple to confuse national story lines.
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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.
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"Individuals that promote anti-Semitic bile, like Definers, and the people at Facebook who hired them, threaten not just our safety, but our democracy," Wyden tweeted.
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"As Facebook has already indicated, the work we do for our clients is always at their request, including this document," a Definers spokesperson told BuzzFeed News.
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Yes. ... [W]hen the "Freedom from Facebook" campaign emerged as a so-called grassroots coalition, the team asked Definers to help understand the groups behind them.
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" Zuckerberg said that COO Sheryl Sandberg "was also not involved" with the Definers relationship, and that "she learned about it at the same time I did.
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Mike Isaac reports: Ms. Sandberg, who also attended the session, added that "I fully accept responsibility for Definers," according to two people familiar with the conversation.
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Elliot Schrage, Facebook's outgoing head of communications and policy, explained the company's decision to hire Definers Public Affairs and essentially took the blame for the decision.
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In a long call with reporters on Thursday, Mark Zuckerberg denied any knowledge of his company's own dealings with Definers Public Affairs, the firm in question.
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In fact, a noteworthy chunk of Facebook's communications team has direct ties to Definers founder Matt Rhoades, who formerly ran Mitt Romney's campaign bid for president.
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And speaking during an on stage interview at TechCrunch Disrupt Berlin last Thursday, Lime's Caen Contee claimed it had not known Definers would use smear tactics.
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"Definers did encourage members of the press to look into the funding of 'Freedom from Facebook,' an anti-Facebook organization," the company said in blog post.
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TechCrunch has obtained an internal memo published by Facebook's outgoing head of public policy Elliot Schrage in which he blames himself for hiring PR firm Definers.
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Definers reportedly urged journalists to find links between Freedom From Facebook and billionaire philanthropist George Soros, a frequent target of far-right, anti-semitic conspiracy theories.
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Joe Pounder, the president of Definers Public Affairs, said the firm would end its work with federal government clients and instead focus on its corporate clients.
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In one document circulated to reporters, Definers tallied what software the 15 members of the Senate Intelligence Committee used to track visitors to their Senate websites.
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Jahan Wilcox, an E.P.A. spokesman, declined to say why the agency had listed the contract as a sole-source notification, with Definers as the intended recipient.
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The firm, Definers Public Affairs, based in Virginia, specializes in conducting opposition research, meaning that it seeks to find damaging information on political or corporate rivals.
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In his recent remarks, Mr. Zuckerberg told reporters that Facebook had gotten rid of Definers and that neither he nor Ms. Sandberg knew about its tactics.
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Definers' work on Apple is funded by a third technology company, he said, but Facebook has pushed back against Apple because Mr. Cook's criticism upset Facebook.
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Definers and its sister firm, the political-opposition group America Rising, share some staff and one floor of an office building in Arlington, Va., with NTK.
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Facebook responded by engaging an opposition-research firm, Definers, to smear Soros and anti-Facebook activists in attacks that were decried by critics as anti-Semitic.
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What was reported: As explained above, the Definers firm that Facebook hired told reporters to look into the financial ties between Soros and anti-Facebook protestors.
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" Schrage also admitted that Definers was used to conduct research on Facebook's rivals, though he framed it as a way "to positively distinguish us from competitors.
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Patrick Gaspard, president of Soros's Open Society Foundations, also criticised the tech giant for revealing what it knew about Definers PR on the eve of Thanksgiving.
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People knowledgeable of Facebook's inner workings and those outside of the company expressed surprise at Sandberg's choice to initially deny any knowledge of the relationship with Definers.
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In a blog post published Thursday, Facebook said it ended its relationship with Definers Wednesday night and denied that it asked the firm to write fake articles.
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Definers issued a statement earlier Friday defending its work with Facebook, though it failed to address claims around NTK Network or that Facebook had ended its partnership.
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"[W]hen the 'Freedom from Facebook' campaign emerged as a so-called grassroots coalition, the team asked Definers to help understand the groups behind them," Schrage wrote.
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According to the Times investigation, Facebook engaged Washington-based consultant Definers Public Affiars to help maintain its image as it trudged through a wave of negative coverage.
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According to two sources, she attempted to call Soros last month, within days of the reports about Definers, and left a message after he didn't pick up.
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I spent the past few days chatting with people in and around Facebook's orbit about the likelihood that Zuckerberg and Sandberg didn't know they had hired Definers.
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Definers Public Affairs, a DC organization, pressed reporters with information favorable to Facebook, including by linking liberal billionaire George Soros to the funding of anti-Facebook activities.
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Facebook has other ties to Definers, the GOP-led opposition research group Read the mud-slinging pitches Facebook's PR firm sent us Additional reporting by Taylor Hatmaker
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The Environmental Protection Agency has terminated a $120,000 contract with Definers Public Affairs, a Republican media-tracking and opposition-research firm, according to a Washington Post report.
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According to Schrage's memo, Sandberg and Zuckerberg have now ordered a review of Definers' work and the work of other public policy firms with whom Facebook contracted.
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Freedom From Facebook has garnered renewed attention this week, after The New York Times revealed that Facebook employed an opposition firm called Definers to fight the group.
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In a statement published Wednesday — the day before Thanksgiving — Facebook admitted that it asked Definers to explore potential connections between its critics and billionaire philanthropist George Soros.
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Spokespeople for Definers have told outlets that they drew a connection between the anti-Facebook campaign and Soros to emphasize that it was not a grassroots effort.
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In response to the report, Facebook said it had ended its relationship with Definers and Sandberg claimed she knew nothing about hiring the group or its work.
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A key part of Definers' strategy was NTK Network, a website that appeared to be a run-of-the-mill news aggregator with a right-wing slant.
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Mr. Whitehouse said that America Rising Squared, a dark-money, nonprofit partner of Definers, set up a website this year pushing the Senate to confirm Mr. Pruitt.
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Definers distributed a 13-page memo titled "Apple Bowing to Chinese Cyber Regulators" that detailed how Apple's activity in China contradicted its public stance on privacy elsewhere.
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Facebook has recently faced significant criticism for a number of controversies, including its handling of users' personal data and its hiring of consulting firm Definers Public Affairs.
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He later sued Definers Public Affairs, a political opposition research firm, alleging that it was conducting a "smear campaign" against him by spreading misinformation about the incident.
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Facebook was rocked last week by a New York Times exposé which revealed that it hired Republican-linked PR firm Definers Public Affairs to smear its critics.
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Two weeks ago, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg spoke with a CBS News anchor and said she "did not know about or hire" the consulting firm, Definers Public Affairs.
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" On its website, Definers says it "helps corporations, trade associations, political campaigns and issue-based clients run smarter campaigns using cutting-edge research and communications strategies and tactics.
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The company is also under fire for hiring the PR firm Definers to push a negative narrative about Facebook's competitors and to look into billionaire philanthropist George Soros.
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By releasing the Definers documents right after the Times report, Facebook could have cleared the air and countered some of the claims of anti-Semitism coming from critics.
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Last week, the New York Times revealed that Facebook hired Definers Public Affairs for public relations and opposition research on competitors and critics, including the influential billionaire Soros.
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Facebook hired Definers in 2017 to do media monitoring, sending news clips about Facebook to the public affairs communications team and to the Facebook communications team more broadly.
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Definers' role for the firm quickly expanded to include opposition research, managing press calls for reporters and managing relationships between reporters and Facebook's privacy, policy and security executives.
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But it's at least possible that the fall guy for the Definers story is still working on one of the things that he publicly took the fall for.
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The legal saga began in November, when Pishevar took aim at Definers Public Affairs — a Washington, D.C.-based firm led by GOP insiders Matt Rhoades and Joe Pounder.
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And she showed her support for George Soros, whom Definers reportedly attempted to tie to an anti-Facebook activist group to undermine it with anti-semitic conspiracy theories.
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Pishevar, who has claimed that he is the victim of a "smear campaign," sued a GOP opposition research firm called Definers Public Affairs earlier this month for defamation.
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Definers circulated information on Soros earlier this year, which attempted to link him to groups pushing for more regulation of Facebook, according to a New York Times report.
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Definers went on to discredit activists in part by alleging links to the billionaire financier George Soros, while suggesting that some criticism of the company was anti-Semitic.
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The investigation found that Facebook hired an opposition research firm called Definers Public Affairs to investigate its critics and spread negative talking points about them in the media.
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In October 2017, Facebook also expanded its work with a Washington-based consultant, Definers Public Affairs, that had originally been hired to monitor press coverage of the company.
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Scandals surrounding the sharing of 87 million Facebook profiles with political consultancy Cambridge Analytica and Facebook's dealings with public relations firm Definers have tainted the company's image of late.
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The document, which is largely innocuous, was assembled by Definers Public Affairs, which was contracted by Facebook for communications consulting and opposition research on competitors and critics, including Soros.
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Definers got around to issuing its first public statement, letting everyone know that the implications of their name aside, they are basically just a humble neighborhood press clippings service.
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Around the same time Facebook again "expanded" its work with Definers, switching to a more offensive strategy aligned with the on-the-attack style that the firm specializes in.
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Facebook's outgoing head of public policy and communications, Elliot Schrage, has taken the blame for hiring the controversial PR firm Definers that pushed criticism of the social network's rivals.
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"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," the company writes.
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In one especially disturbing detail, Facebook employed a Republican opposition research company named Definers to discredit its critics by linking them to liberal billionaire and conservative boogeyman George Soros.
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"It is wrong to suggest that we have ever asked Definers to pay for or write articles on Facebook's behalf — or to spread misinformation," Facebook said in the statement.
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A Facebook spokesperson told CNN Business that Kaplan continues to have the confidence of the company's leaders and that he was not involved in Definers' work for the company.
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Color of Change, a progressive civil advocacy group that was, according to The Times, included in a brief compiled by Definers, called on Thursday for Facebook to fire Kaplan.
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"Definitions belong to the definers, not the defined," she wrote in Beloved — but she came closer than anyone else has to reflecting humanity through the lives of the defined.
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Definers had established a Silicon Valley outpost earlier that year, led by Tim Miller, a former spokesman for Jeb Bush who preached the virtues of campaign-style opposition research.
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Definers encouraged reporters to write about the financial connections between anti-Facebook activists and the liberal financier George Soros, drawing accusations that it was relying on anti-Semitic tropes.
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We received multiple Definers' pitches on behalf of what looks to be three different tech companies — and only one of these is explicitly badged as a press release from the firm paying Definers to do PR. (In that case, e-scooter startup Lime.) We weren't entirely convinced even then — given the sender was a random public affairs company — and ended up emailing our own Lime contacts and CCing their press email to double-check.
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Sherpa Capital co-founder Shervin Pishevar has filed a lawsuit against Definers Public Affairs, a Republican opposition research firm that he believes is being paid to spread rumors about him.
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His claims are delusional, we have never engaged in any of the actions he outlined in his complaint, and Definers has never done any work with regards to Mr. Pishevar.
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Two weeks after The New York Times revealed Facebook's controversial work with Republican opposition research firm Definers Public Affairs, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg has changed her story in significant ways.
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The company had worked with Definers, a dark-arts public-relations firm that specializes in information warfare, but Facebook severed the relationship on Wednesday following the New York Times report.
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Last week, Facebook's outgoing head of communications and public policy, Elliot Schrage, reportedly took the blame for hiring Definers, which Facebook dropped after the initial Times story on Nov. 14.
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Meanwhile, CEO Mark Zuckerberg and COO Sheryl Sandberg have denied knowledge of Definers' work for Facebook, and outgoing head of public policy Elliot Schrage took responsibility for hiring the firm.
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What they're saying: "We are proud to have partnered with Facebook over the past year on a range of public affairs services," said a spokesperson for Definers in a statement.
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At TechCrunch, Taylor Hatmaker finds several more ties to Definers at Facebook, where former Republican campaign staffers who once worked with its co-founder now work on the communications team.
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Definers Public Affairs is "an outfit of elite GOP operatives" specializing in opposition research — a cutthroat dark art that's the norm in politics but anomalous in virtue-conscious Silicon Valley.
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According to The New York Times report, Facebook's involvement with Definers began prior to October 2017, likely after the group set up shop in Silicon Valley a few months prior.
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The most damning revelation was that Facebook had hired an opposition research firm called Definers to investigate, among other things, whether George Soros was funding groups critical of the company.
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A New York Times report revealed that Definers Public Affairs, a Republican-oriented opposition-research company hired by Facebook, had tried to link the campaign to liberal financier George Soros.
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Last month's New York Times story revealed the group had been targeted by Definers Public Affairs, a political consulting firm Facebook hired to hit back at critics of the company.
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"Definers was awarded the contract to do our press clips at a rate that is $87,000 cheaper than our previous vendor and they are providing no other services," he said.
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"Facebook must immediately release any and all documents and emails relating to Definers and their research on Freedom from Facebook, members of the coalition, and any individuals involved," she said.
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Facebook and Sandberg, in particular, are facing a huge controversy over the social network's hiring of a Republican-leaning PR firm, called the Definers, to smear billionaire philanthropist George Soros.
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Ms. Sandberg at first denied knowing that Facebook had hired Definers, before acknowledging in a post last week that some of the company's work for Facebook had crossed her desk.
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What was reported: Facebook hired Definers, a D.C.-based public relations firm that "specialized in applying political campaign tactics to corporate public relations," according to the Times — essentially, opposition research.
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As TechCrunch has learned — and Sandberg herself alluded to in a statement — Sandberg was also looped into emails about Definers, the team that later conducted research into Soros on Facebook's behalf.
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Facebook expanded its relationship with Definers in October 2017 after enduring a year's worth of external criticism over its handling of Russian interference on its social network, according to the report.
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The Times also wrote that Definers' tactics included spreading conspiracy theories about billionaire philanthropist, Holocaust survivor, and recent bombing attempt target George Soros, alleging he was funding an anti-Facebook movement.
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He noted that he is going to focus on the defamation lawsuit he filed against Definers Public Affairs, the organization Pishevar has claimed is responsible for a "smear campaign" against him.
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Some of their hired assassins work for Definers Public Affairs, a Washington-based agency that mounted an astroturf campaign in an effort to drag Google and Twitter into the Russia issue.
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The memo and comment can be found below [Update: And it's since been officially released by Facebook]: Many of you have raised questions about our relationship with the Definers consulting firm.
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As Recode reported, Definers Public Affairs set up a Silicon Valley shop last year with the explicit goal of courting the Bay Area's biggest companies for some lucrative "dark arts" mudslinging.
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Definers representatives frequently contacted journalists, encouraging them to look into Color of Change's funding as a means of casting doubts on its legitimacy, specifically as a recipient of funds by Soros.
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MERION STATION, Pa. — Facebook has apologized for hiring Washington D.C. hit firm Definers Public Relations as part of a smear campaign against its critics in the wake of the Russia scandal.
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The Times reported that Definers had circulated a document earlier this year encouraging reporters to examine the links between liberal billionaire George Soros and a group campaigning to break up Facebook.
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The company's decision follows a New York Times story detailing the work Facebook paid Definers to do, including linking the company's critics to liberal donor and hedge fund billionaire George Soros.
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Sarah Miller, the co-chair of Freedom from Facebook, one of the groups Definers targeted, released a statement on Friday reacting to reports of Sandberg's short request and calling for transparency.
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But a few days before Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook's chief operating officer, testified to Congress in September, Definers set its sights on a different target: the senators about to question Ms. Sandberg.
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Though Sandberg has long had broad control over the Facebook teams that control communications and policy, both she and CEO Mark Zuckerberg have denied knowledge of the company's involvement with Definers.
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In addition to sharing at least nine current and former executives, Definers Public Affairs shares an office building in Arlington, Va., with the multiple arms of America Rising and NTK Network.
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The company released the memo on the eve of Thanksgiving, days after Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook's chief operating officer, said that she had no idea it had hired the lobby group, Definers.
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SAN FRANCISCO — Facebook said Thursday that it had ended its relationship with a Washington-based consulting firm, Definers Public Affairs, which spread disparaging information about the social network's critics and competitors.
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"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 Facebook spokeswoman said in the statement.
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And the scooter company Lime hired Definers in August because it wanted an outside contractor to take a more aggressive tack against rivals, according to a person familiar with that work.
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While Facebook was working with Definers, NTK published stories critical of some of Facebook's biggest competitors, including Apple and its CEO Tim Cook, who has been critical of Facebook's data policies.
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Sheryl Sandberg also denied any knowledge of Definers, though walked that statement back four days later when Facebook's recently departed policy and communications head Elliot Schrage took the blame for the work.
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But Facebook and Sandberg's public stance about who at the company worked with Definers, and what the firm was tasked with researching, has evolved in the 2½ weeks since that initial report.
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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.
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Facebook said in the blog post that Definers to asked journalists to look into the organization Freedom from Facebook, which Facebook says is funded by "a well-known critic" of the company.
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The Times story described the broad strokes of the claims made by Definers, but the document itself has not been shared with the public — until today, when it was published by BuzzFeed.
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"We are confident that the court will see through his strategy of filing deceitful lawsuits to intimidate women from coming forward," said Tim Miller, a partner Definers Public Affairs, in a statement.
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The next time he sits down with a reporter, I hope he'll be asked about how he views the role of companies like Definers and Burston-Marsteller in promoting a company's interests.
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Zuckerberg denies knowledge of Facebook's work with GOP opposition research firm Founded by a Republican campaign manager lauded for his dirt-digging prowess, Definers is far from a normal, politically neutral contractor.
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In one effort, Definers pushed back against Facebook critics with a narrative that linked the social network's detractors to George Soros, the billionaire Democrat and frequent target of anti-Semitic conspiracy theories.
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As previously reported, we engaged them for a three month contract to assist with compiling media coverage reports, limited public relations and fact checking, and we are no longer working with Definers.
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Facebook was quick to issue a rebuttal to the NYT article, claiming it had never asked Definers to generate fake news or anti-Semitic memes in an attempt to smear its critics.
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Schrage clarified that the firm had not been used to "distribute or create fake news," despite the existence of what's been described as an "in-house fake news shop" owned by Definers.
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She denies knowing about the work of Definers, the PR term which the Times said used opposition-research tactics to boost Facebook's reputation while disparaging its competitors, and that Facebook fired Thursday.
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Bloomberg says several of Pishevar's accusers were willing to be identified by name in its article, but changed their minds after he sued Definers Public Affairs, citing the potential of legal reprisal.
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" Facebook has since cut ties with Definers, and its founder Mark Zuckerberg has denied any knowledge of the strategy, telling reporters that he "learned about this reading the New York Times yesterday.
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" In a statement, Facebook condemned the story for its many "inaccuracies," adding: "Definers did encourage members of the press to look into the funding of 'Freedom from Facebook,' an anti-Facebook organization.
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Facebook has cut ties to a political consulting group, Definers Public Affairs, that it hired to discredit its critics and opponents in the wake of scrutiny its received over the past year.
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In an email days before the hearing, a Definers employee pressed a Times reporter to write that Facebook was taking the senators' concerns seriously while Google was irresponsible for skipping the hearing.
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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.
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Matt Stoller, policy director at Open Markets Institute, one of the groups Definers targeted, told POLITICO that the FTC needs to punish Facebook and set rules to rein in the company's behavior.
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Facebook's decision to hire Definers, a corporate-facing outgrowth of the Republican America Rising PAC known for its fierce opposition research, proved to be a deeply controversial departure from Silicon Valley ethical norms.
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Facebook's outgoing head of communications and public policy said that he knew and approved the decision to hire controversial public relations firm, Definers Public Affairs, according to an internal memo reported by TechCrunch.
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Facebook expanded its relationship with Definers Public Affairs in October 2017 after enduring a year's worth of external criticism over its handling of Russian interference on its social network, according to the report.
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Among other things, Facebook worked with Definers Public Affairs, a Washington-based public relations firm, which reportedly criticizing the business practices of rivals Apple and Google while downplaying concerns about Facebook's own problems.
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"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," the company said in a blog post.
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Buzzfeed News obtained a copy of the report that Facebook commissioned from consulting firm Definers Public Affairs, which attempts to link efforts by the "Freedom from Facebook" campaign to liberal philanthropist George Soros.
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November 14: A bombshell New York Times report reveals that Facebook had hired a GOP-linked PR company called Definers to spread malicious stories about Facebook's critics, including liberal billionaire donor George Soros.
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Michael Clemente, the former Fox News and ABC News executive, is joining Definers Public Affairs, the consulting firm founded by next-generation GOP operatives Matt Rhoades and Joe Pounder, as a senior adviser.
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Amidst the strategic fluff, Zuckerberg did come out strongly on one thing — denying any knowledge of or involvement in Facebook's hiring of Definers Public Affairs, a Washington, D.C.-based Republican opposition research firm.
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Officials with the firm told Mother Jones that EPA will utilize a media-tracking tool called "Definers Console," which marketing materials promote as a "war room" for following media coverage of its clients.
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The report also said Facebook used a Republican opposition research firm called Definers Public Affairs to accuse liberal financier George Soros of funding some of the groups that were speaking out against Facebook.
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Now, thanks to The American Dialect Society (ADS) â€" a group composed of academics, writers, students and more â€" the eloquent phrase, "dumpster fire" will be joining the ranks of 2016's definers.
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The big picture: A polling memo from WPA Intelligence and Definers Public Affairs, "Political Peril Facing Red State Democrats On SCOTUS Obstruction," shows how Republicans will try to make the issue an albatross.
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" A Definers spokesperson said the research it conducted for Facebook "was entirely factual and based on public records, including public statements by one of its organizers about receiving funding from Mr. Soros' foundation.
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While legal firm WilmerHale prepared the Facebook CEO and COO for their time on the stand, Definers also assisted with all three Congressional hearings that brought Facebook before Congress, including Zuckerberg and Sandberg's hearings.
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" Earlier this month, Pishevar sued a GOP opposition research firm, Definers Public Affairs, accusing it of spreading a smear campaign against him; though Tim Miller, a partner of the firm, called the allegations "delusional.
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Sandberg has previously said that she was unaware of the work done by Definers Public Affairs, a communications firm that Facebook hired for public relations and opposition research on competitors and critics, including Soros.
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While a Facebook spokesperson maintains that Sandberg did not direct Definers, it now acknowledges that she did in fact request research on Soros following comments he made at the World Economic Forum in January.
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This week, the agency cancelled a $120,000 media tracking contract it had signed with Definers Public Affairs, a public relations firm best known in environmental science circles for political opposition research against climate scientists.
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Scooter startup Lime has sought to back peddle on an explanation given by its VP of global expansion late last week when asked why it had hired the controversial PR firm, Definers Public Affairs.
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We checked our inboxes and none of the pitches Definers sent to TechCrunch made an explicit disclosure that the messages they contained had been paid for by Facebook to push a pro-Facebook agenda.
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The company was working with a known Republican opposition firm, Definers Public Affairs, that went after George Soros, the Jewish billionaire, outspoken critic of Facebook, and longtime target of conspiracy-fueled, anti-Semitic attacks.
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Sheryl Sandberg knew more of Facebook's work with Definers than she let on Prior to Targeted Victory, Moffatt served as the digital director on the Romney campaign, founding his company after the campaign dissolved.
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Those efforts included hiring a firm called Definers Public Affairs to push back on the criticism it had generated from its handling of the Cambridge Analytica scandal and Russian disinformation campaigns on its platform.
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In Facebook's case, as a New York Times investigative piece revealed, part of the reaction to discovering Russian attempts to interfere in the 2016 elections involved hiring a right-wing opposition research company, Definers.
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Facebook hired the right-leaning consultancy Definers to help it fight back the narrative being established by its critics in the wake of an unfolding public relations crisis this year over Russian election interference.
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"I just donated to a Democrat for the first time in my life if any of yall want to do so as well," Miller, a partner at the consulting firm Definers Public Affairs, tweeted.
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The newest startup setting up shop in the Bay Area is Definers Public Affairs, a Washington, D.C.-based outfit that seeks to apply the dark science of political opposition research to the business world.
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Mother Jones first reported on the contract on Friday, followed by reports in the New York Times and elsewhere about how a Definers executive has been investigating EPA employees for potential anti-Trump bias.
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SAN FRANCISCO — A small firm called Definers Public Affairs brought the dark arts of Washington's back-room politics to Silicon Valley when, while working for Facebook, it began disparaging other tech companies to reporters.
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The move to drop the contract came after a liberal nonprofit group, Public Citizen, filed a formal protest late Monday with the Government Accountability Office saying that Definers had illegally been granted the deal.
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And this week, in news dropped on the day before Thanksgiving, Ms. Sandberg admitted she did know a thing or two about the hiring of the Definers, after previously saying that she did not.
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A research document circulated by Definers to reporters this summer, just a month after the House hearing, cast Mr. Soros as the unacknowledged force behind what appeared to be a broad anti-Facebook movement.
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Late Wednesday, Facebook decided to terminate its relationship with Definers after the publication of the Times article prompted an outcry, said a person familiar with the matter, who was not authorized to speak publicly.
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Ms. Sandberg, who had previously said she did not know about Definers, admitted in an online comment attached to the memo that she had been informed about the company in emails and other materials.
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But Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg told reporters that he ended the company's relationship with the outside firm, Definers Public Affairs, after he became aware of it while reading the New York Times story.
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" The suit acknowledges that it is not illegal to conduct factual research, but is instead accusing Definers of slander, "in the hopes that false facts find their way to reporters and ultimately to the public.
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It's true that Definers came on board initially for more generic PR support — not oppo research per se — and that's how the firm's involvement was framed in an email introducing them into Facebook's own team.
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" In a press release published over Thanksgiving weekend, Facebook's outgoing head of communications and policy, Elliot Schrage wrote that the company hired Definers to "understand the backgrounds and potential conflicts of interest of our critics.
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Definers circulated a document to the media this summer that attempted to discredit anti-Facebook activists by suggesting that Soros — a popular target of right-wing conspiracy theorists — was financing their protest, the Times reported.
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"We distill and strategically deploy public information to build and influence media narratives, move public opinion and provide powerful ammunition for your public relations and government affairs efforts," the group more commonly called Definers boasts.
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Zuckerberg says he and Sandberg were made aware of the firm's involvement in its lobbying efforts at the same time, implying Sandberg had nothing to do with the Definers' hiring or any of its operations.
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It is because of false rumors like this that Mr. Pishevar was compelled to bring his legal action against Definers to ensure that his reputation is not destroyed and that the truth will always prevail.
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One step it took during that period was to hire Definers Public Affairs, a DC-based conservative firm, which did PR work for Facebook — and dug up dirt on the company's competitors and its critics.
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" That may be how she genuinely feels, but she also said that Definers was "trying to show that some of the activity against us that appeared to be grassroots also had major organizations behind them.
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Known in the political business as opposition research, the documents pushed out by Definers neatly provided reporters with the ammunition they would need to suggest the senators grilling Ms. Sandberg were hypocrites for criticizing Facebook.
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"Definers was awarded the contract to do our press clips at a rate that is $87,000 cheaper than our previous vendor and they are providing no other services," Mr. Wilcox said in an emailed statement.
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Definers pressed reporters to explore the financial connections between Mr. Soros and groups that had criticized Facebook, including a progressive group founded by Mr. Soros's son and Color of Change, an online racial justice organization.
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The group, Definers Public Affairs, targeted rival technology companies and Facebook critics through its work with journalists and conspiracy-minded blog posts from a sister company that runs a conservative news site called NTK News.
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Zuckerberg spoke hours after the tech giant cut ties with Definers Public Affairs, a political consulting firm that The New York Times reported Wednesday had accused Soros of funding a group of Facebook's progressive opponents.
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Given his general disinterest in media relations, it is believable that Mark Zuckerberg had no awareness of Definers or the communications team's deep and often out in the open ties with the external Republican communications firm.
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" Sandberg said she has "a lot of respect for George Soros" and was looking retroactively into the work Definers completed for Facebook: "I certainly wish if this was going on, that I had known about it.
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In a late-evening post on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, Facebook published an internal memo from Schrage assuming responsibility for the Definers contract and a corresponding note from Sandberg assuming responsibility for the Schrage's communications team.
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The report claimed that Definers Public Affairs was hired, in part, to discredit competitors and groups critical of Facebook at a time when the company was under scrutiny for Russian disinformation around the 2016 presidential election.
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We've been looking into this and though it is close to a holiday for many of you I wanted to share an update on what we've learned and where things stand: Why did we hire Definers?
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Elliot Schrage, the outgoing head of communications and policy at Facebook, took responsibility for the decision to hire the firm, according to the statement, while COO Sheryl Sandberg denied any knowledge of the company hiring Definers.
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Curiously, it did not deny reports of Facebook's beef with Apple in the wake of Tim Cook's comments criticizing Facebook on privacy — which it used as its reason why it never hired Definers to criticize Apple.
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The report also outlined how Facebook hired the Republican consulting firm Definers to conduct and spread opposition research about its detractors, including highlighting their ties to liberal billionaire George Soros, a maneuver many called anti-Semitic.
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He said that agency staff members familiar with the company's work approached the firm about putting forward a bid and that Mr. Pruitt himself was not, to his knowledge, involved in the decision to select Definers.
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A person familiar with the matter told the Times that its report prompted an outcry, and that top execs including Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg had not been aware of exactly what Definers had been doing.
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Facebook later commissioned a campaign-style opposition research effort by Definers Public Affairs, a Republican-linked firm, which gathered and circulated to reporters public information about Mr. Soros's funding of American advocacy groups critical of Facebook.
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Among other things, Facebook worked with Definers Public Affairs, a Washington-based public relations firm, which reportedly wrote dozens of articles criticizing the business practices of rivals Apple and Google while downplaying concerns about Facebook's own problems.
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Since the revelations that Facebook used Definers Public Affairs to conduct opposition research on Soros were first reported by the New York Times last month, the company has been hard at work recalibrating and revising its story.
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In a bizarre twist on Wednesday, Definers Public Affairs — which Pishevar is suing for allegedly helping to spread a false police report that accuses him of rape — filed a motion to dismiss the investor's suit in full.
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Definers, the Republican strategy group Facebook contracted pushed reporters to look into its detractors on the left and the right, including online racial justice group Color of Change and pro-Trump social media stars Diamond and Silk.
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It writes: The sideswipe at Qualcomm's "tactics" is perhaps also a reference to the use of a controversial PR firm, Definers, which — as we reported in November — sent pitches slinging mud at Apple seemingly on Qualcomm's behalf.
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According to the Times, Definers Public Affairs, a Republican opposition research firm contracted by Facebook, pushed reporters to "explore the financial connections" between George Soros, a liberal billionaire, and organizations agitating against it, including Color of Change.
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The action comes in the wake of a sweeping New York Times article published Wednesday that included reports that Definers sought to bolster Facebook's image by encouraging the publication of negative content about its competitors and critics.
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Jahan Wilcox, a spokesman for the EPA, said in a statement to the Times that the decision to hire Definers was because the firm was significantly less expensive than the firm previously contracted to do the work.
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Pishevar, a Democratic donor, was also a supporter of a movement for California to secede from the U.S. — another position that, according to his lawsuit, Definers allegedly used in a bid to illustrate the investor's Russia connections.
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In fact, many of NTK Network's stories were written by employees at Definers and America Rising, a sister firm, to criticize rivals of their clients, according to one former employee not allowed to speak about it publicly.
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A D.C.-based startup called Definers Public Affairs is setting up shop in Silicon Valley with an aim to arm companies with ammunition to sway corporate rivals and government overseers, and shape public opinion on controversial issues.
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Last week, a bombshell New York Times report detailed Facebook's involvement with a public-relations firm called Definers Public Affairs, which The Times said disseminated research to journalists linking the billionaire George Soros to anti-Facebook movements.
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"Definers offered E.P.A. a better and more efficient news clipping service that would give E.P.A.'s employees real-time news at a lower cost than what previous administrations paid for more antiquated clipping services," Mr. Pounder said.
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Most of what Definers produced for Qualcomm had nothing to do with its beef with Apple, which was a complex legal fight over the royalties Apple should pay for the Qualcomm chips it was using in iPhones.
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The ride-hailing company Lyft used Definers to help navigate regulatory challenges in statehouses across the country, including choosing which Lyft drivers to pitch to the media for interviews, according to a person familiar with the work.
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Joe Pounder, a veteran of Republican presidential campaigns who describes himself as "a master of opposition research" in his biographies, is listed as a co-founder of Definers and America Rising and editor in chief of NTK.
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"The president has two options on this trade deal: the honey or the hammer," said Antonia Ferrier, a Republican strategist with Definers Public Affairs and a former aide to the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.
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Just before Thanskgiving, Facebook was hit with another blow when the New York Times reported that Facebook used a PR firm called Definers to target liberal financier George Soros after suspecting him for funding an anti-Facebook group.
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Facebook's relationship with Definers Public Affairs were outlined as part of a broader report that looked at the company's handling of numerous scandals over the past three years, including Russian interference and the Cambridge Analytica scandal in March.
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"We're no longer working with [Definers] but at the time, they were trying to show that some of the activity against us that appeared to be grassroots also had major organizations behind them," Sandberg wrote in her Nov.
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Definers responded to the Times report by saying that it was "not hired as an opposition research firm" by Facebook, even though a "fraction" of its work "included providing research and background information about critics" of the company.
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In Thursday's statement, Facebook (FB) said that Definers' research was already underway when Sandberg, the company's chief operating officer, sent an email asking whether Soros had "shorted Facebook's stock," a maneuver that bets on a stock losing value.
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Facebook had earlier announced its decision to end its relationship with Definers, which had pushed negative stories about other tech companies and about Facebook's critics, some of which were posted on a conservative website linked to the firm.
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Definers also recently launched a new venture with the global law firm Dentons, which describes itself as combining "political intelligence, legal advisors, campaign-style tactics, lobbying, governmental affairs, research, and communications into one unique offering" to help clients.
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Definers officially set up shop in Silicon Valley this June, when Miller — previously the top communications aide to former Republican presidential contender Jeb Bush — relocated to the region from Washington, D.C. Miller is not named in the lawsuit.
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Contract documents show that Definers — which on its website lists its founder, president and top partner — applied to the E.P.A. as a "disadvantaged business," a status that can give a bidder preference as it pursues a federal contract.
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"The revelation complicates Ms. Sandberg's shifting explanations of her role in Facebook's decisions to hire Definers and go on the offensive against the social network's growing legion of critics," including Mr. Soros, Mr. Confessore and Mr. Rosenberg add.
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Founded by veterans of Republican presidential politics, Definers specialized in applying political campaign tactics to corporate public relations — an approach long employed in Washington by big telecommunications firms and activist hedge fund managers, but less common in tech.
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He emailed the piece to the right-wing provocateur Charles C. Johnson, according to the email, who published it on his website GotNews without a byline or other disclosures that it came from Mr. Miller, Definers or Qualcomm.
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The New York Times reported later that year that, following Soros&apos remarks, Facebook had hired a Republican-linked opposition research firm called Definers Public Affairs, to dig up dirt on Soros and push negative press about him.
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In a conference call with reporters on Thursday, Mr. Zuckerberg criticized what Definers had done on behalf of his company and said he and Ms. Sandberg were not aware of the specific work the outside firm was doing.
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"Trump engages in fits and starts and then undermines his side's negotiating positions half the time," said Tim Miller, a former communications director for the Republican presidential campaign of Jeb Bush, and a partner at Definers Public Affairs.
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Facebook's story around Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg, billionaire philanthropist George Soros and the company's dealings with opposition conservative research firm Definers Public Affairs keeps evolving, now weeks after a New York Times investigation into questionable operations inside Facebook.
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Part of Facebook's internal strategy, the Times reported, involved hiring Definers to write negative news about rivals and push the idea that liberal financier Soros was behind a growing anti-Facebook movement in an effort to delegitimize the campaign.
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" As for what research Facebook tasked Definers to complete, Schrage said the firm was directed to research Soros: "In January 2018, investor and philanthropist George Soros attacked Facebook in a speech at Davos, calling us a 'menace to society.
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Facebook is still dealing with the fallout from a New York Times report outlining the company's strategy to fight back against criticism, particularly its work with Definers Public Affairs, an opposition research firm with ties to the Republican Party.
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In November, a New York Times story traced Facebook's ties with a Republican PR firm, Definers Public Affairs, including an embarrassing effort to link Facebook critics with liberal donor George Soros, who has been subject to anti-Semitic attacks.
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In a blog post on Thanksgiving Eve, Elliot Schrage, outgoing Head of Communications and Policy, tried to clean up revelations about Facebook's use of the now-fired Definers Public Affairs, an aggressive Arlington, Va., firm founded by Republican operatives.
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Details: The New York Times story said that Definers had distributed materials trying to link Freedom From Facebook, which advocates the breakup of the company, to the liberal donor George Soros, who has been subject to anti-Semitic attacks.
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Internal Facebook memo sees outgoing VP of comms Schrage take blame for hiring Definers The newsletter was off when this story broke, and it seems like too much time has passed to really weigh in on it here now.
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The use of the firm Definers has drawn fierce criticism after it emerged in a New York Times report that the PR firm had used political campaign tactics to pitch negative stories about Facebook's competitors including Apple and Google.
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The company terminated its contract with the firm on Thursday following the story's publication, and on the call with reporters, Zuckerberg emphasized that he and Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg were not aware of Definers' work on their company's behalf.
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But Miller's new post in the Bay Area with Definers could pave the way for a dramatic escalation from those efforts as the hardscrabble stuff of national politics invades a tech industry that has angled to avoid such tactics.
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Laura Silber, a spokeswoman for Open Society Foundations, said the philanthropy's president spoke with Ms. Sandberg on Thursday and requested that Facebook commission an independent review of the company's relationship with Definers, with results made public within three months.
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"Definers was awarded the contract to do our press clips at a rate that is $87,000 cheaper than our previous vendor, and they are providing no other services," a spokesman for the E.P.A., Jahan Wilcox, wrote in an email.
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Nicole Cantello, an E.P.A. lawyer in Chicago who has helped lead a series of enforcement actions against major air polluters in the Midwest, and whose emails also were requested, said the agency's decision to hire Definers caused great concern.
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Mark Zuckerberg, the chief executive, and his No. 29, Sheryl Sandberg, pleaded ignorance to the actions of a Washington-based consulting firm, Definers Public Affairs, which had orchestrated smear campaigns against Facebook's critics, including the billionaire philanthropist George Soros.
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In a memo made public by Facebook on Wednesday, Elliot Schrage, Facebook's communications and policy chief, assumed responsibility for hiring Definers and said Facebook asked the P.R. firm to investigate whether Mr. Soros had "financial motivation" to criticize Facebook.
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Last week, an extensively reported New York Times article said that Definers wrote dozens of articles that tried to deflect negative attention onto rivals Google and Apple and pushed the idea that Soros was behind a growing anti-Facebook movement.
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Facebook ended its relationship with Definers yesterday, following backlash from the public as well as from the president of the Open Societies Foundation: one of the groups run by Soros, who has been a frequent target of anti-semitic conspiracy theories.
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But Facebook later acknowledged that Sandberg had asked the communications team to research Soros' financial ties after he criticized the company, and reporting by my colleague Taylor Hatmaker suggests that Sandberg was more aware of Definers' work than initially acknowledged.
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The backdrop: A Republican consulting firm — Definers Public Affairs — working for Facebook tried to link the Freedom from Facebook campaign with George Soros, whose Open Society Foundations help fund the Open Markets Institute, the New York Times reported on Wednesday.
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Subscribe to The Interface In the company's version of events, an unspecified person on the communications team hired Definers Public Affairs to monitor press about the company, help with product announcements, and carry out the odd whisper campaign against prominent enemies.
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One of tech's biggest companies bringing a Republican political oppo outfit in to mitigate a relentless series of PR catastrophes is noteworthy in its own right, but Zuckerberg's ignorance of Facebook's dalliance with Definers makes the whole thing even more odd.
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The company fired PR and research firm Definers, the center of some of the story, it disputed allegations that it tried to hide details around Russian hacking and it held an hour-long call with journalists and CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
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Again, returning to how Definers sought to engage with us, in another more labor intensive episode, it pitched another TechCrunch journalist — ahead of a Senate Intelligence hearing which was attended by Facebook's COO, Sheryl Sandberg and Twitter's CEO Jack Dorsey.
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Definers Public Affairs, a policy and opposition research firm, has filed an anti-SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation) response to a lawsuit from Silicon Valley investor Shervin Pishevar, who accused the firm of coordinating a smear campaign against him.
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So, the most recent Facebook scandal that your listeners have probably heard of is what I've been calling the Definers scandal, which was they hired a public relations firm to target George Soros in ways that a lot ... Among others.
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A bombshell New York Times report later revealed that Facebook directed a PR firm called Definers Public Affairs in summer 2018 to conduct an "aggressive lobbying campaign" to blame billionaire George Soros — a Facebook critic — for spreading anti-Facebook sentiment.
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"We're no longer working with [Definers] but at the time, they were trying to show that some of the activity against us that appeared to be grassroots also had major organizations behind them," Sandberg wrote in a statement last week.
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Since the New York Times story was published on Wednesday, Definers has taken heavy criticism for attributing that public criticism to Soros, an approach similar to the one used by many far right-wing groups looking to discredit their political opponents.
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Pishevar said he would focus on identifying "who is responsible for spreading false rumors about me" and pursuing a defamation lawsuit he filed in November against political research firm Definers Public Affairs, its founder Matt Rhoades and president Joe Pounder.
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Even before the E.P.A. hired Definers, the group of companies, political action committees and nonprofit organizations affiliated with America Rising had frequently drafted news releases that put Mr. Pruitt and his policies in a positive light and attacked the administrator's critics.
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Nothing was more at variance with their promises of transparency than The Times's revelation that the company had hired Definers Public Affairs, whose founders are known in Republican circles as lords of the so-called "dark arts" of political opposition research.
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One of the groups targeted by Definers, the civil rights organization Color of Change, is demanding that Facebook fire Joel Kaplan, who runs the company's Washington operations, and to release a promised audit of the platform's effect on civil rights.
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"As soon as we found out they were engaged in bad practices that were not beneficial and obviously not creating a good image… we decided to move on," he said, adding that Definers had been "recommended by top providers all the way around".
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George Soros: According to the Times, Definers also circulated a document about financier George Soros, a proponent of global democracy who has spoken out against both Facebook and Google and who has also become a focal point for conservative and anti-Semitic attacks.
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Facebook has ended its contract with Definers Public Affairs, a consulting firm that came under fire on Wednesday after the New York Times published an investigation focused in part on the tactics it had used to take on critics of the social giant.
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While Facebook acknowledged its relationship with Definers following a revealing New York Times story, the company has insisted that its two top executives, Sandberg and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, had little, if any, knowledge of the company's links with the firm or its work.
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Michael Cappetta, Ben Collins and Jo Ling Kent report: Definers runs a website called NTK Network, which has a verified page on Facebook with more than 120,000 followers that publishes and promotes articles about the firm's clients as well as their competitors.
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Sheryl Sandberg Can't Have It All Jennifer Senior says Sheryl Sandberg uniquely does deserve blame over the Definers scandal: What makes Sandberg's current behavior so unsavory is that she put corporate interests — and her own image — ahead of the needs of democracy.
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UK Policy Group, a consultancy with close links to the Conservative party, is part of Definers Public Affairs, the controversial firm ditched by Facebook earlier this month following a New York Times exposé that has further dented the social media network's image.
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You can read the document below: Buzzfeed reports that there "is at least one other, longer Definers document involving Soros," and that a spokesperson for the Open Markets Institute has said that Soros hasn't provided any funding for the Freedom from Facebook coalition.
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Returning again to Definers, in another instance, the firm reached out to me via email to "pass along some context" after I wrote this article — about a tool created by Oxford University's Oxford Internet Institute to aggregate junk news being shared on Facebook.
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The pitch was for a report written by another Washington-based PR firm, called GovPredict — whose website describes its business as "research, analytics, and actionable intelligence for winning public affairs campaigns" — which Definers said it could share ahead of release time, under embargo.
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"Later, when the 'Freedom from Facebook' campaign emerged as a so-called grassroots coalition, the team asked Definers to help understand the groups behind them," Facebook added, referring to a coalition of progressive groups that had been critical of the social media platform.
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Facebook announced in a post that it ended its relationship with Definers Public Affairs on Wednesday night, less than 24 hours after the Times' explosive report on the inner workings of Facebook's leadership having to deal with a series of scandals broke.
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Joining a long tradition of companies and campaigns that drop bad news on holidays, Facebook on Thanksgiving eve took responsibility for hiring a Washington-based lobbying company, Definers Public Affairs, that pushed negative stories about Facebook's critics, including the philanthropist George Soros.
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Elliot Schrage, the company's Head of Communications and Policy, took the fall in a blog post, admitting he asked Definers Public Affairs to open a file on Soros after the philanthropist called Facebook "a menace to society" in a speech earlier this year.
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The motion argues that Pishevar filed his suit against Definers in order to possibly stem future stories about him — such as the Bloomberg piece that was published last week — and asks the court to compel the investor to pay for the firm's incurred legal costs.
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But if Definers was also sending out this stuff (and indeed worse things than we were pitched) more widely, to content seeders and fencers that trade on framed outrage to drive online clicks, their tasty-sounding tidbits would not have been so critically parsed.
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Definers pressed reporters to explore the financial connections between Mr. Soros's family or philanthropies and groups that were members of Freedom from Facebook, such as Color of Change, an online racial justice organization, as well as a progressive group founded by Mr. Soros's son.
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Separately, Facebook faced another controversy last November over its hiring of a PR firm called the Definers, to smear billionaire philanthropist George Soros, who often advocates for liberal or leftist causes and is treated as a boogeyman by right-wing media pundits and politicians.
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America Rising and its affiliates also separately deployed "trackers" to videotape climate change activists and produced news releases and videos favorable to Scott Pruitt, the administrator of the E.P.A. Definers Public Affairs, a corporate entity, shares multiple top executives with America Rising, including Mr. Pounder.
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It enlisted the firm Definers Public Affairs to publish negative articles about Apple on a conservative website and to start a false campaign to draft Apple's chief executive, Timothy D. Cook, as a presidential candidate, presumably to make him a target of President Trump.
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Earlier the same day, the company announced it was terminating its contract with political communications firm Definers Public Affairs, which the Times identified as one of the key consultants that spread negative stories about rivals like Google and Apple and questioned critics' funding sources.
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The Times also reported that even as Facebook claimed some criticism of the company was anti-Semitic, its PR firm Definers was trying to plant the idea that liberal financier George Soros — himself a frequent target of anti-Semitic attacks — was behind the growing anti-Facebook movement.
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In the memo, Schrage doubled down on the company's defense of its decision to hire political research firm Definers in 2017 amid a public relations backlash from both the Cambridge Analytica data-sharing scandal and reports of Russian interference on Facebook during the 2016 federal elections.
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Facebook confirmed in an anonymous blog post that it had ended its contract with the Washington DC-based firm on Wednesday, and admitted that Definers had encouraged members of the media to look into possible links between Soros and "Freedom from Facebook," an anti-Facebook organization.
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" He defended Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, who was painted as the person responsible for many of these problems in the New York Times piece, saying Sheryl "was also not involved" with the Definers relationship, and that "she learned about it at the same time I did.
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Sandberg has denied knowledge of the company's hiring of the public relations firm, Definers Public Affairs, or its political work, but recently admitted that she sent an email asking for research on Soros after he made public comments about Facebook at the World Economic Forum in January.
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Sandberg also issued a mea culpa to the staff on Friday over hiring Definers, which among other things worked with what one former employee described as an "in-house fake news shop" to seed the media ecosystem with stories flattering to Facebook and critical of it enemies.
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For more on this topic: Internal Facebook memo sees outgoing VP of comms Schrage take blame for hiring Definers The real threat to Facebook is the Kool-Aid turning sour Google walkout organizers aren't satisfied with CEO's response Facebook and the endless string of worst-case scenarios
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The Times reported on Wednesday that Definers also distributed research documents to reporters that cast the liberal donor George Soros as an unacknowledged force behind activists protesting Facebook, and helped publish articles criticizing Facebook's rivals on what was designed to look like a typical conservative news site.
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The company also chose to strengthen its ties with Definers Public Affairs, a consulting firm founded by Republican political operatives, which then sought to discredit anti-Facebook activists by linking them to George Soros, a wealthy liberal donor who is often the subject of conspiracy theories.
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In the wake of that abrupt dismissal, Facebook published a rebuttal which included the following statement: 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.
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Photo: Thibault Camus (AP)Following reports that Facebook was involved with what amounted to a factually distorted smear campaign against philanthropist and Holocaust survivor George Soros, BuzzFeed News has obtained one of the documents used by the opposition research firm Definers Public Affairs to disseminate that narrative to reporters.
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One of the bigger bombshells in The New York Times' massive Facebook investigation published yesterday was that the company had hired an opposition research and consulting firm known as Definers Public Affairs, which it said had created deceptive news posts and pushed them onto a network of conservative websites.
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Definers Public Affairs, which Facebook fired on Wednesday after a New York Times report revealed the company had dug up information on Facebook's critics and competitors, tried to show that staff working on Apple News had donated more money to Democratic candidates and causes than they had to Republicans.
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The poll's release comes on the heels of a bombshell New York Times report that said Facebook leadership acted slowly in confronting Russian influence efforts on the platform, and that the tech giant used a GOP research firm called Definers Public Affairs to smear liberal financier George Soros.
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The New York Times reported that Allan Blutstein, a vice president for Definers Public Affairs, has submitted dozens of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to the EPA since the beginning of Trump's presidency, many of which target agency employees who are known to be critical of the administration.
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The bombshell exposé claimed Facebook hired the Republican opposition-research firm, Definers Public Affairs, to smear anti-Facebook protestors as anti-Semitic, while simultaneously scapegoating anti-Facebook groups — like Color of Change — as under the control of Soros, a common right-wing refrain that reeks of anti-Semitism.
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Last week, a bombshell New York Times report exposed the company's chaotic leadership and detailed Facebook's involvement with a public-relations firm called Definers Public Affairs, which it said disseminated research to journalists linking Soros to anti-Facebook movements in the wake of fallout over the Cambridge Analytica scandal.
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Part of the Times' report said that Definers, a PR firm with strong links to past Republican presidential campaigns, distributed a research report to reporters that claimed Soros was quietly funding anti-Facebook groups, and urged reporters to dig into the financial ties between Soros and these groups.
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Law and lobby firm Dentons has launched 3D Global Affairs as part of an alliance with strategic communications and political intelligence firm Definers Public Affairs, run by Matt Rhoades, the former campaign manager for Mitt Romney's presidential run in 2012 and former Republican National Committee research director Joe Pounder.
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The Times reported on Saturday that Allan Blutstein, a vice president for Definers Public Affairs, has submitted dozens of Freedom of Information Act requests to the EPA since the beginning of Trump's presidency, many of which target agency employees who are known to be critical of the administration.
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In a statement coupled with his, Sandberg said that she initially did not remember a firm named Definers but upon review admitted that the firm's work with Facebook was "incorporated into materials" presented to her and that the firm was referenced in "a small number of emails" she had received.
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But perhaps the most striking part of Sandberg's post is a brief passage in which she claims that she — Facebook's chief operating officer — was unaware of the exact scope of Definers' work for the company, which included disinformation campaigns against Apple, Google and the George Soros-backed Open Society Foundations.
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Sheryl Sandberg knew more of Facebook's work with Definers than she let on To abandon the company because (for instance) Sheryl Sandberg hired a dirty PR firm to sling mud at critics would be antithetical to the mission that drove these fact-checking companies to the platform to begin with.
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Sheryl Sandberg knew more of Facebook's work with Definers than she let on On his company biography page, Targeted Victory founder and CEO Zac Moffatt describes his experience helping companies "enhance their brand and get their message out in the current political and media environment," mentioning Facebook, FedEx and Gillette as corporate clients.
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Photo: Francois Mori (AP)Today, Facebook set up a press conference addressing a bombshell report from The New York Times that alleged, among other things, that the company contracted a Republican opposition research firm called Definers to run interference on the company's image, a job which reportedly included leaning on George Soros conspiracy theories.
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Specifically, the Times reported that the tech giant used a Republican opposition research firm called Definers Public Affairs to accuse liberal financier George Soros of funding some of the groups that were speaking out against Facebook as it faced public scrutiny over its handling of both the Russian disinformation campaigns and the Cambridge Analytica debacle.
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Definers quickly found plenty of business, from start-ups like Lyft, Lime and Juul to giants like Facebook and Qualcomm, the influential chip company that was in a nasty legal fight with Apple over royalties, according to five people with direct knowledge of Mr. Miller's work who declined to be named because of confidentiality agreements.
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The Times also found that Definers reached out to reporters to share research about Diamond and Silk, conservative media personalities who have complained that Facebook restricts their free speech, and to suggest that George Soros, the wealthy Democratic donor who is often attacked by members of the far right, was bankrolling anti-Facebook protestors.
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The current Facebook scandal, triggered by a New York Times story last month that highlighted the company's internal strife and relationship with a seasoned opposition research firm, threatens to engulf key executives after Facebook's initial failure to explain what its top two leaders, CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Sandberg, knew about Definers and when they knew it.
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The authors gamely try to weave a thread through Cambridge Analytica, the challenges of content moderation, executive departures, the future of the news industry, Joel Kaplan's malign influence, fights among the communications team, Zuckerberg's comments about the Holocaust, last fall's data breach, the Definers scandal, the Facebook Research app scandal, and the creeping threat of regulation.
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Facebook's latest PR crisis has cast a lurid spotlight on a GOP-led publicity firm called Definers Public Affairs, after a New York Times investigation revealed last week the firm had sought to discredit Facebook critics by, in one instance, linking them to the liberal financier George Soros — a long-time target of anti-Semitic conspiracy theories.
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Facebook's communications and policy chief, Elliot Schrage, said in a memo that he was responsible for hiring the group, and had done so to help protect the company's image; Schrage will be leaving the company, a move planned before the memo was released, and Facebook fired Definers last week, after a New York Times investigation published on Nov. 14.
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Internally, the conflict seems to have divided Facebook into three camps: those loyal to Zuckerberg and chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg; those who see the current scandals as proof of a larger corporate meltdown; and a group who see the entire narrative — including the portrayal of the company's hiring of communications consulting firm Definers Public Affairs — as examples of biased media attacks.
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Concern grows at Tory link to US lobby firm in Facebook smear scandal Fallout from the Definers scandal is spreading to its other clients, including the UK's Conservative party, Jamie Doward reports: The Conservative party is under pressure to reveal details about its relationship with the London arm of a US lobbying firm accused of smear tactics against critics of Facebook.
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The New York Times reported last week that Facebook had hired the Definers Public Affairs firm and that Sandberg played a central role in the company's efforts in Washington, DC. Among the work the firm had done for Facebook, the Times reported, was to encourage reporters to examine the links between a campaign against the company and the billionaire liberal donor George Soros.
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"As political trends seep further into the broader economy, the new company, Definers, is arming clients with the arsenal available to the most well-funded political candidates, including dossiers on their opponents’ strengths and weaknesses, tracking tools to monitor what people are saying in traditional and social media, and a rapid-response operation to shape public fights," wrote the Wall Street Journal in May 2015.
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According to the company, CEO Mark ZuckerbergMark Elliot ZuckerbergFacebook users in lawsuit say company failed to warn them of known risks before 2018 breach Social media never intended to be in the news business — but just wait till AI takes over Facebook exploring deals with media outlets for news section: report MORE and COO Sheryl Sandberg were not aware of the company's relationship with Definers.
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The company had yet another oopsie last week when a scathing New York Times report alleged that Facebook failed to take down Donald Trump's infamous and blatantly racist call to ban Muslim entry to the U.S. to avoid alienating conservatives, deliberately sought to suppress evidence of Russian meddling before the 2016 federal elections, and hired a GOP opposition research firm named Definers to dig up dirt on critics.
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Asked about this last week Contee claimed not to know anything about Definers' use of smear tactics, saying Lime had engaged the firm to work on its green and carbon free programs — and to try to understand "what were the levers of opportunity for us to really create the messaging and also to do our own research; understanding the life-cycle; all the pieces that are in a very complex business".
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As you read them, note how the second version of the statement seeks to obfuscate the exact source of the claimed inaccuracy, using wording that seeks to shift blame in way that a casual reader might interpret as external and outside the company's control… Statement 1: Our VP of Global Expansion misspoke at TechCrunch Disrupt regarding our relationship with Definers and was inaccurate in his description of their work.
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Now she finds herself facing intense criticism for how she and the company handled the Cambridge Analytica scandal, account hacks, Russians running wild over its platform and the hiring of a communications firm called Definers Public Affairs (which really sounds like something a bunch of toxic bros would come up with after too many beer bongs down at Faber College's Omega Theta Pi) to slime various and sundry detractors.
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Photo: Francois Mori (AP)The Open Society Foundations (OSF), a international philanthropic and grantmaking organization, has responded to a bombshell report that senior management at Facebook including Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg, CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and chief lobbyist Joel Kaplan were involved in hiring a Republican opposition research firm named Definers Public Affairs to counter the company's growing list of critics—including by peddling conspiracy theories about OSF's founder, Hungarian-American investor and Holocaust survivor George Soros.
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Zuckerberg's sharp increase in 2018 compensation came after the company navigated a turbulent year riddled with scandals, starting with the Cambridge Analytica scandal in March, in which a political consultancy obtained personal data of Facebook users in an unauthorized way and used it to target political ads; and ending with the Definers Public Affairs episode in November, where Facebook was found to have used a firm to write negative stories about competitors and plant them in the press.
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And especially busy since the Cambridge Analytica story blew up into a major global scandal this April, although Facebook's 2018 run of bad news hasn't stopped there… Everything you need to know about Facebook's data breach affecting 50M users Facebook under pressure over Soros smear tactics Internal Facebook memo sees outgoing VP of comms Schrage take blame for hiring Definers Read the mud-slinging pitches Facebook's PR firm sent us The evidence session with Allan is scheduled to take place at 11:30am (GMT) on November 27 in Westminster.
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The requests came from a Virginia-based lawyer working with America Rising, a Republican campaign research group that specializes in helping party candidates and conservative groups find damaging information on political rivals, and which, in this case, was looking for information that could undermine employees who had criticized the E.P.A. Now a company affiliated with America Rising, named Definers Public Affairs, has been hired by the E.P.A. to provide "media monitoring," in a move the agency said was intended to keep better track of newspaper and video stories about E.P.A. operations nationwide.
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