Facebook employed a Republican opposition-research firm to discredit activist protesters, in part by linking them to the liberal financier George Soros.
That’s just one of the tricks The New York Times said Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, and it’s chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg, employed as they ignored signs that the social media giant was exploited to disrupt elections, broadcast viral propaganda and inspire deadly campaigns of hate around the globe.
According to a bombshell new report in Times, Zuckerberg knew about interference from Russian hackers using the platform during the 2016 election, despite publicly denying it, then he tried to portray critics as anti-Semitic.
Zuckerberg had declared in the fall of 2016 that it was ‘crazy’ to think Facebook had been used to help Donald Trump win the presidency, but the Times reports that in-house experts knew this not to be the case.
The Times said for over a year Facebook had amassed evidence of Russian activity through an investigation led by its former security chief, Alex Stamos.
This involved Russians looking at the Facebook accounts of people involved in presidential election campaigns and, later, Russian-controlled accounts offering reporters information from hacked emails from senior Democratic Party officials.
But it was only belatedly that the company’s board was informed of the full extent of the meddling, the Times said.
In 2017, Sandberg reportedly shouted at the security executive Stamos, that “you threw us under the bus,” after he told Facebook’s board of directors the company had not yet stamped out Russian interference on the platform.
When criticism of its belated Russia admission grew, Facebook mounted a lobbying campaign led by Sandberg.
The company used a PR firm to push negative stories about its political critics and make rival companies like Google and Apple look bad.
Sandberg also reportedly argued Facebook should not single out Russia in a public paper it planned to published looking at ‘information operations’ on the social platform, after the company’s Washington-based policy manager that “if Facebook implicated Russia further, Republicans would accuse the company of siding with Democrats.”
Facebook was also said to have employed a Republican firm specializing in opposition research to discredit activists, partly by linking them to the liberal investor Soros, who has become a favored target of Trump supporters and far-right conspiracy groups.
Before and since this month’s midterm elections, Facebook has shut down dozens of accounts on its own platform and on Instagram which it said were aimed at influencing the vote, and that it was exploring a possible link to Russia.
This afternoon, Facebook’s board of directors released a statement responding to the report.
The board did not outright deny the Times‘ reporting, instead opting to call the idea that they knew about Russian interference and tried to thwart investigations into what happened “grossly unfair.”
The Times said its article was based on interviews with more than 50 people, including current and ex-Facebook executives and other employees, lawmakers and government officials, lobbyists and congressional staff members.