A week after a New York Times report led Facebook to cut ties with conservative-leaning political consulting firm Definers, Facebook’s outgoing global communications vice president has taken the blame for hiring the outfit.
“Responsibility for these decisions rests with leadership of the Communications team. That’s me,” wrote Elliot Schrage in an internal memo obtained by TechCrunch.
The Times reported a week ago that Facebook used the research firm to target competitors and critics over the last year. The campaign included trying to tie protesters to financier George Soros.
Schrage, who described hiring Definers as a political necessity following the 2016 election, said in the memo that his team did indeed ask the firm to investigate Soros’ involvement in “Freedom from Facebook,” an effort to encourage people to stop using the platform.