Facebook paid PR firm to smear Google

Guardian.co.UK home ^ | Josh Halliday

[NormsRevenge]

Facebook has been caught secretly paying a top public relations firm to plant negative stories about Google in the US media.

Burson-Marsteller, one of the world's largest PR firms, attempted to get USA Today, the Washington Post and other high profile US news outlets to write scaremongering stories about Google's privacy policies.

The explosive revelation – which will seriously damage relations between the two technology giants, already bitter rivals – came to light in leaked emails late on Wednesday. Facebook later confirmed to the Daily Beast that it had hired Burson-Marsteller.

Paul Cordasco, a spokesman for Burson-Marsteller, told the Guardian on Thursday that the assignment was "not at all standard operating procedure" and was against the company's policies. He added: "The assignment on those terms should have been declined."

Cordasco confirmed to the Guardian that "the assignment" was now terminated and that Burson-Marsteller was no longer working with the social network. Facebook declined to comment when contacted by the Guardian.

Suspicions in Silicon Valley were aroused earlier this week when two high-profile media figures – former CNBC tech reporter Jim Goldman, and John Mercurio, a former political reporter – began pitching anti-Google stories on behalf of their new employer, Burson-Marsteller. The pair consistently refused to disclose the identity of their client.

[for-q-clinton]

I don’t get this. Why is it a “big deal”?

Hell for years IBM and a bunch of other tech firms paid big money to lobbyists and PR firms to attack Microsoft and get the legal system to do what they couldn’t do.

So now it’s bad to do this?

I would be more surprised if it didn’t happen.

[ErnBatavia]

I wonder if Gibby's fingerprints will turn up somehow....

[lormand]

If Google were owned by the Koch brothers and did EXACTLY what Google does regarding property rights, spying and rewarding illegal content sharing, the Koch brothers would be cell mates with Bernie Maddoff.

During the Clinton years, they attacked Microsoft relentlessly. One of the reasons was that Microsoft placed IE browsers on it's OS desktop. Oh the humanity!

[Recovering_Democrat]

Facebook and Google BOTH compete for the affections of Hussein.

I see both of them as utilities to be used by CHRISTIANS, CONSERVATIVES, and CAPITALISTS to spread the truth.

Let’s use them as tools for the good, and not let their perverted leaders win with THEIR agenda.

[Sloth]

The explosive revelation – which will seriously damage relations between the two technology giants, already bitter rivals

I don't get this. They do completely different things. They're not in competition. Yes, they both make big $$$ off advertising, but their products are not in competition at all, as far as I can tell. Nobody says, "Now that I'm on Facebook I'll never need to use a search engine/Chrome browser/etc. again", or vice-versa.