Facebook’s Definers fall guy was already on his way out

How nice and tidy.

Facebook’s head of public policy, Elliot Schrage, sent a memo to Facebook employees in which he took the blame for hiring public policy agency Definers. Conveniently enough, this happened after he had already announced he was planning to leave Facebook. 

TechCrunch acquired and published the memo Tuesday. You can read it in its entirety here.

Definers is the Republican-affiliated firm the New York Times recently exposed for using opposition research tactics to spread negative news about Facebook’s competitors.

Definers responded to the Times report by saying that it was “not hired as an opposition research firm” by Facebook, even though a “fraction” of its work “included providing research and background information about critics” of the company. Schrage’s note affirms that Definers helped Facebook “positively distinguish us from competitors.” Read more…

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