Does Facebook really use tactics to embarrass rival companies?

Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook, has not finished getting up when another problem appears. Just when everything seemed to indicate that the company was trying to mend its mistakes, a New York Times report reveals that the social network of launching supposed tactics to discredit its critics, embarrass the rival companies and subtract importance to the company’s problems.

The American newspaper published a large report in which it gives account of the methods that, according to their research, Facebook and a public relations company hired by the social network, used to “deny and divert attention” from the criticisms.

According to the New York Times, Facebook: urged journalists to investigate possible financial links between billionaire George Soros and the anti-Facebook movement.

He softened the scope of the alleged Russian interference in the elections of 2016 and reacted slowly. It promoted the publication of derogatory articles on rivals. He considered dragging companies from competition to their controversies.

In addition, several sources accuse Definers Public Affairs, this company published dozens of negative articles about other technology companies, such as Google and Apple, to try to distract attention from the problems of Facebook.

These materials were published on NTK Network, a website that looks like news, but is actually run by the public relations firm. Although it does not have a large audience of its own, its content is often collected by popular conservative media like Breitbart News.

Another tactic was to point to Soros, a renowned critic of Facebook and Google as a driving force behind the activist groups opposed to the blue giant. The firm allegedly circulated a research paper connecting Soros with “a large anti-Facebook movement,” and urged the media to study the financial links between tycoon and groups like Freedom from Facebook and Color of Change.

The report has already had as a first consequence that US legislators demand stricter regulation of social networks. Facebook denies most of the accusations.