Facebook’s ‘dirty PR’ problem
Political trickery is on the upswing, one expert says
SAN FRANCISCO—When Tim Miller, a longtime Republican political operative, moved to the Bay Area last year to set up a public relations shop, he brought with him tradecraft more typical of Washington than Silicon Valley.
He was well versed in opposition research — the pursuit of damaging intelligence about a political enemy. He had ties to online media provocateurs. And, above all, he understood the value of secrecy.
Miller had arrived at the right moment with his company, DePublic Affairs. With cusfiners tomers and lawmakers questioning the avowed good intentions and power of tech’s biggest companies, Facebook and others were on the defensive.
He quickly found plenty of business, from startups like Lyft, Lime and Juul to giants like Facebook and Qualcomm, the influential chip company that was in a nasty legal fight with Apple over royalties, according to five people with direct knowledge of Miller’s work who declined to be named because of confidentiality agreements. While working for Qualcomm, Definers pushed the idea that Apple’s chief executive, Timothy Cook, was a viable presidential candidate in 2020, according to a former Definers employee and digital records. Presumably, it was an attempt to chill the cordial relations that Cook had cultivated with the Trump administration.
The campaign by Definers signalled an escalation of Silicon Valley’s already brass-knuckled approach to public relations.
“This type of dirty PR? It’s always been there, but it’s definitely on the upswing,” said Jonathan Hirshon, who was a public relations representative for technology companies for three decades, including Apple and Sony.
“The idealism is still there, but the truth is, the big companies have become a lot more authoritarian in their approach to the media.”
Facebook fired Definers last week after the New York Times detailed the work Miller’s firm had done on behalf of the social media company.
Definers encouraged reporters to write about the financial connections between antiFacebook activists and liberal financier George Soros, drawing accusations that it was relying on anti-Semitic tropes.
Definers’ strategy played to a target’s pressure points. Most of what Definers produced for Qualcomm had nothing to do with its beef with Apple, which was a complex legal fight over the royalties Apple should pay for the Qualcomm chips it was using in iPhones.
Definers employees distributed anti-Apple research to reporters and would not say who was paying for it. Definers distributed a 13-page memo titled “Apple Bowing to Chinese Cyber Regulators” that detailed how Apple’s activity in China contradicted its public stance on privacy elsewhere.
It also planted dozens of negative articles about Apple on conservative news sites, according to a person familiar with the work and emails reviewed by the New York Times.
Qualcomm officials did not respond to requests for comment.
Matt Rhoades, Definers’ chief executive, said in a statement that the firm’s work “is absolutely no different than what public affairs firms do every day for their clients across industries and issues across the country.
“We are proud of the work we do for our clients.”
Juul, which has been accused of marketing its e-cigarettes to children, is working with Definers to improve its public image and communicate with reporters.
It is unclear what the work is beyond that.
The ride-hailing company Lyft used Definers to help navigate regulatory challenges in statehouses across the country, including choosing which Lyft drivers to pitch to the media for interviews, according to a person familiar with the work. And the scooter company Lime hired Definers in August because it wanted an outside contractor to take a more aggressive tack against rivals, according to a person familiar with that work.
Lyft and Lime have since ended their work with Definers.
Some details of Definers’ relationships with tech firms, including Lyft and Lime, have previously been reported by other news organizations.
Definers also plied its services for Washington. It helped set up Power the Future, a pro-oil trade group, while it also worked for the Environmental Protection Agency.
The EPA ended its contract with Definers last year after it was revealed that a Definers lawyer was investigating agency employees critical of the Trump administration.