Facebook takes a close look at collaboration with PR agencies

Facebook has begun investigating how it works with PR agencies. The move comes after The New York Times reported that a PR agency had distributed articles aimed at diverting attention from Facebook and targeting competitors.

Facebook’s PR chief Elliot Schrage, who has since left, says in a Facebook blog post that the decision to end the partnership with PR firm Definers came directly from director and founder Mark Zuckerberg. “It’s not about Definers. It’s about us, not them. Mark (Zuckerberg, ed.) has made it clear that we are a company with a mission and he wants to hold us to a higher standard. ease of relying on other companies to make decisions about how we make our case, about our mission, about policies, competitors and critics.”

Schrage admits in the blog post that Definers looked at competing companies on behalf of Facebook and how Facebook could “positively differentiate itself.” This also involved investor George Soros. Facebook said it wanted to defend itself against unfair claims with the work.

Schrage denies that Facebook paid for the distribution of fake news. That’s not what the accusation stated either. According to The New York Times, Definers employees wrote opinion articles on its own site NTK to influence public opinion. Those articles contained no inaccuracies, but were intended to blacken competitors and thus divert attention.

Facebook is still investigating what Definers has done for the company and the exact results are not yet clear. The social networking company previously denied various elements of the New York Times article last week.