Facebook exec backtracks on hiring firm

Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg admitted that she had received information about the company’s work with Definers, the Republican-affiliated consultancy that conducted opposition research into Facebook’s critics.

Her comments, written in a blog post late Wednesday, appeared to walk back her statements from last week in which she said she did “not know” Facebook had hired Definers.

In the blog post, Sandberg said she did not initially remember Definers when she read a New York Times story that detailed how Facebook had employed the firm. She subsequently asked her staff to look into the matter to “double-check whether anything had crossed my desk.”

“Some of their work was incorporated into materials presented to me and I received a small number of emails where Definers was referenced,” Sandberg wrote. She also said: “I want to be clear that I oversee our Comms team and take full responsibility for their work and the PR firms who work with us.”

The admission could embolden Facebook’s critics who have been saying the social network mismanaged its response to a series of crises it has faced over the past year involving Russian meddling and data privacy.

Much of Wednesday’s post was written by outgoing policy chief Elliot Schrage — Sandberg’s post was an addendum at the bottom of Schrage’s.

Schrage said that the firm was originally hired to compile news clips and provide information to reporters, but the scope of the firm’s work expanded in ways that he regretted.