Facebook Slammed Over Soros Conspiracy Smear Campaign

Of all the places where you think you wouldn’t find it, Mr Zuckerberg’s platform Facebook has been slammed for apparently participating in a smear and conspiracy campaign against liberal Democratic donor Mr George Soros.

Following a number of scandals, including alleged Russian interference with US elections in 2016 (which partly took place on the Facebook platform), the company of CEO Mr Zuckerberg hired a public relations company in 2017. That company was tasked with distributing fake news amongst other things about Facebook's competitors, but also about Democratic donor and known leftwing billionaire Mr George Soros.

<b>Definers Public Affairs</b>

PR company Definers Public Affairs, known to lean Republican, was paid by Facebook to use 'political campaign tactics' and to conduct 'opposition research'.

On the conservative website NTK Network, the company published, among other things, documents that trivialized Russian interference during the elections via the social network.

In another article, Apple CEO Tim Cook was portrayed as a hypocrite because of his criticism of Facebook's privacy rules, while his company also 'steals' data from users.

NTK Network shares an office with Definers Public Affairs in Arlington, Virginia. Many articles on the website are written by employees of the PR company, or by America Rising, the branch of the company that conducts research into political opposition. The site is then used to attack opponents of the clients of Definers Public Affairs.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Facebook employed a notorious opposition research firm to accuse its critics of being &quot;funded by Soros&quot;. Straight out of Viktor Orban&#39;s playbook. Congratulations, Facebook. You win America&#39;s Next Top Fascist<a href="https://t.co/gGqXYFhDJK">https://t.co/gGqXYFhDJK</a> <a href="https://t.co/Lh8yNSzUbX">pic.twitter.com/Lh8yNSzUbX</a></p>&mdash; Carole Cadwalladr (@carolecadwalla) <a href="https://twitter.com/carolecadwalla/status/1062822402957238272?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 14, 2018</a></blockquote>

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Although NTK Network does not have a large readership, articles from the website are regularly picked up by (ultra) conservative websites such as Breitbart. The pieces thus find their way to a predominantly right-angled corner of the internet.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">NEW: Facebook reportedly hired GOP opposition research firm to link protesters to George Soros <a href="https://t.co/K0sxr5Q9S8">https://t.co/K0sxr5Q9S8</a></p>&mdash; The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) <a href="https://twitter.com/thedailybeast/status/1062830210436001792?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 14, 2018</a></blockquote>

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Just as the PR agency is used to make Facebook appear more positive, the social network led by Mark Zuckerberg takes extra measures to reduce fake news, racism and anti-Semitism on the site.

<b>George Soros</b>

Definers Public Affairs then tries to badly portray American-Hungarian billionaire and philanthropist George Soros.

The Jewish Soros had to be seen as the silent force behind an anti-Facebook movement. Journalists were encouraged by the PR company to ask questions about Soros and his 'tactics'.

An employee of the ultraconservative website Daily Caller says on Twitter that he was approached by Define Public Affairs and 'the pr-man always called Soros'. He already thought it was 'strange', he writes.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Facebook secretly funded a right-wing firm to attack critics by linking them to George Soros: report <a href="https://t.co/VgEyxJ27DN">https://t.co/VgEyxJ27DN</a></p>&mdash; AlterNet (@AlterNet) <a href="https://twitter.com/AlterNet/status/1062855440059510784?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 14, 2018</a></blockquote>

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The liberal philanthropist regularly appears in right-wing conspiracy theories, with or without an anti-Semitic undertone. Just before the mid-term elections in the US last week, letter bombs were delivered to Soros and several influential Democrats.

<b>Open Society</b>

Patrick Gaspard, president of Mr Soros’ Open Society Foundations, said the strategy was “reprehensible”, “misguided” and “dangerous”. According to Mr Gaspard, it was part of a “concerted rightwing effort to demonise Mr Soros”, which had contributed to death threats and the delivery of a pipe bomb to his home. “You are no doubt also aware that much of this hateful and blatantly false and anti-Semitic information is spread via Facebook.”

Source:

https://gizmodo.com/facebook-promoted-anti-soros-conspiracy-theory-to-count-1830448167

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