Facebook has publicly admitted hiring a public relations firm to find and disseminate information on George Soros, saying that it “wanted to determine if he had any financial motivation” for having criticised the company in a speech.
The social media giant was one of a number of companies to use the services of Definers, a public affairs company specialising in opposition research.
Facebook fired the PR firm last week after the New York Times detailed the actions it had taken after Mr Soros attacked Facebook as a “menace” in a speech to the World Economic Forum in Davos in January.
According to the newspaper, “Definers pressed reporters to explore the financial connections between Mr Soros’s family or philanthropies and groups that were members of Freedom from Facebook, such as Color of Change, an online racial justice organization, as well as a progressive group founded by Mr Soros’s son.”