Facebook claims New York Times article contains several inaccuracies

Facebook has issued an extensive statement, in which it discusses the article from The New York Times, which, among other things, stated that Facebook had hired a company that spread negative reports about Apple and Google.

Facebook says, among other things, that contrary to what the article claims, it was not slow in investigating Russian interference in the US presidential election of 2016. “This is not true,” Facebook said. The company says it took steps before the election to limit that interference through Facebook.

The company also says that the order to switch to Android phones is not a response to statements by Apple director Tim Cook about the Cambridge scandal this spring. Cook emphasized the difference in the revenue model between Apple and Facebook, where Apple mainly earns money from hardware and can therefore guarantee the privacy of users without jeopardizing revenue. Facebook mainly earns money from advertisements, which benefit from being targeted as much as possible.

In addition, Facebook is repeating an earlier statement to The New York Times about hiring Definers, a company that has spread negative reports about Apple and Google via the conservative news site NTK Network. According to the article, that was a strategy by Facebook to divert attention. Facebook claims it has never paid for or ordered anything negative about competitors.

The New York Times published an article in which it mapped, based on conversations with fifty people involved, how Facebook’s top executives Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg responded to various crises in recent years.