Still reeling from the coordinated hit job two weeks ago by “whistleblower” Frances Haugen who appeared on 60 Minutes days before testifying before the U.S. Senate about the social media giant’s practices, Facebook issued a statement Monday decrying a “gotcha campaign” while warning about another hit job involving leaked documents being reported by thirty journalists allegedly being coordinated by the same public relations team behind the previous hit.
Facebook’s statement was posted to Twitter:
“We expect the press to hold us accountable, given our scale and role in the world. But when reporting misrepresents our actions and motivations, we believe we should correct the record.
Over the last 6 weeks, including over the weekend, we’ve seen how documents can be mischaracterized. Obviously, not every employee at Facebook is an executive; not every opinion is the company’s position.
Right now 30+ journalists are finishing up a coordinated series of articles based on thousands of pages of leaked documents. We hear that to get the docs, outlets had to agree to the conditions and a schedule laid down by the PR team that worked on earlier leaked docs.
A curated selection out of millions of documents at Facebook can in no way be used to draw fair conclusions about us. Internally, we share work in progress and debate options. Not every suggestion stands up to the scrutiny we must apply to decisions affecting so many people.
To those news organizations who would like to move beyond an orchestrated ‘gotcha’ campaign, we are ready to engage on the substance. – John Pinette, VP Communications
Over the last 6 weeks, including over the weekend, we’ve seen how documents can be mischaracterized. Obviously, not every employee at Facebook is an executive; not every opinion is the company’s position.
— Meta Newsroom (@MetaNewsroom) October 18, 2021
A curated selection out of millions of documents at Facebook can in no way be used to draw fair conclusions about us. Internally, we share work in progress and debate options. Not every suggestion stands up to the scrutiny we must apply to decisions affecting so many people.
— Meta Newsroom (@MetaNewsroom) October 18, 2021
To those news organizations who would like to move beyond an orchestrated ‘gotcha’ campaign, we are ready to engage on the substance. – John Pinette, VP Communications
— Meta Newsroom (@MetaNewsroom) October 18, 2021
Human Events’ Will Chamberlain speaks for many on the right about Facebook’s troubles: “You know, I can imagine a world where conservatives were defending you from this lefty blackmail. Maybe you shouldn’t have banned the sitting President of the United States.”
In short: pic.twitter.com/uVBtuDTgGB
— Will Chamberlain (@willchamberlain) October 18, 2021
