Facebook’s PR company shouldn’t be exempt from smear campaign criticism

While Facebook took the brunt of the pushback on reports it had hired a PR company to smear its critics, it’s worth remembering that the PR company itself shouldn’t be exempt from the criticism.

The world has just watched Facebook plunge into yet another reputational crisis – this time denying and then admitting it hired a PR company to smear its critics. But was the campaign itself fundamentally flawed?

According to a New York Times investigation, Facebook commissioned Republican-aligned PR company Definers to smear billionaire George Soros, who has been a very outspoken critic of Facebook and Google. They also reportedly generated scores of stories and posts critical of tech rivals Google and Apple.

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