Facebook outed as source of anti-Google PR smear campaign

Facebook is reported to have hired public relations firm Burson-Marstellar to generate negative stories about Facebook competitor Google— specifically, "urging [journalists] to investigate claims that Google was invading people's privacy." Well that's rich.

One of their targets was Christopher Soghoian, a security researcher and blogger, who is no chump. Things did not work out as planned.

Dan Lyons chronicles the epic "Keystone Kops"-like routine at The Daily Beast.

Soghoian has posted the email exchange he had with Burson-Marstellar here.

At Wired News, Sam Gustin writes,

In the annals of shady public relations stunts, Facebook's attempt to surreptitiously plant negative -- and highly misleading -- stories about Google into leading media outlets will surely go down as one of the most ham-handed in recent memory.

Ham-handed it may be, but as Declan McCullagh of CNET noted on Twitter today, there is precedent.

(Image: Facebook, a Creative Commons Attribution No-Derivative-Works (2.0) image from fbouly's photostream)

• [Anonymous]

  As always, everything evil in the world that happens can be linked to Microsoft ;-), especially when it comes to making computers useless.

  Facebooks have a deal with Microsoft (displaying ads from Microsofts ad services) that generate most of their revenue and Microsoft become one of the larger owners of Facebook as part of that deal.

• [lknope]

  Wow. Every new thing I learn about facebook, I am glad all over again that I don’t do FB. It’s pretty much the same way I feel about Wal Mart and how I’m glad I don’t shop there.

• [jphilby]

  More evidence (not needed) of FB’s frat-jock mentality, again.

  No doubt that endears FB to a certain grade of human being that adulates stupid shenanigans, sleazy manipulations and trust betrayals.

  Just more proof that, for the rest of us, it’d be -really great- if someone would put up a clean alternative.

• [Von Haus]

  And my first reaction was to go and put a link to this on facebook, oh dear…

• [teknocholer]

  Interesting article about Burson-Marsteller’s activities and client list here:

  http://www.slate.com/blogs/blogs/scocca/archive/2011/05/12/burson-marsteller-has-another-image-problem.aspx

• [Anonymous]

  McCullagh should talk about smears after the job he did on Al Gore.

  • [grimc]

    I’m with you, Anon #1. Declan McCullagh’s douchebaggery was so great that he does nothing but devalue any story he’s connected to.

• [Anonymous]

  You’ll also be happy to learn that a Burson-Marsteller employee wrote the Wikipedia article about Burson-Marsteller. And made it very, very positive.

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Burson-Marsteller#Burson-Marsteller_article_improvement

• [teapot]

  Don’t be evil, Facebook.

  • [Tensegrity]

    Or if you are going to be evil, don’t be stupid about it.

• [Anonymous]

  I can’t say a bad thing about facebook on the web without having a shill ride my back.

  IN fact… I’m convinced I no longer have the privilege to post to facebook comments because I said negative things about them. But that’s stretching it a bit. But not really.

• [Anonymous]

  I heard Osama bin Laden used Google.

• [binternet]

  It’s 2011, who still uses Facebook? Twitter+Tumblr is all you need.

  • [Ape Lad]

    Exactly. Except for the tumblr part.

    • [dragonfrog]

      Well, that and the twitter part. That’s also kind of silly.

• [pjcamp]

  Honestly, I don’t know why anyone fools with Facebook.

• [Harbo]

  Pot Kettle Black

• [agonist]

  As if using Facebook didn’t already leave a bad enough taste in one’s mouth, now this. This is taint.

• [GuyInMilwaukee]

  Everyone needs to leave Facebook immediately and go to Noodllr.com.
  What? Noodllr.com doesn’t exist yet in this TSD (timespacedimesion)?
  My cranch. Nix thoughtpattern. Post out.

• [lava]

  facebook is like the AOL of the 2000s

• [Bob Stanley]

  Coincidently just today, I heard this interview with an author of a book about Google and the whole time I thought that the author seemed more interested in smearing Google than just writing about it:

  “Google expert Scott Cleland argues that the world’s most powerful company has a hidden political agenda, and explains why he things its mission to organize the world’s information is destructive and wrong. In Search & Destroy: Why You Can’t Trust Google Inc., he explains that Google has the largely unchecked power to influence and control virtually everything the Internet touches.”

  http://www.wnyc.org/shows/lopate/2011/may/12/google-do-no-evil/

  • [jjsaul]

    Looks like your instincts are right about that author’s agenda:

    http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Scott_Cleland

    http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Pundit_payola

  • [Yano]

    He’s and infamous Google-basher, previously admitting to have been payed by their competitors.

• [tylerkaraszewski]

  I would give up on facebook except that it’s the easiest way to keep in contact with most of my friends and family. There’s a vendor lock-in problem in effect.

  • [emmdeeaych]

    there needs to be some kind of a…. diaspora.

    • [Gulliver]

      Let my friends go…to the promised Second Life?

• [phisrow]

  Facebook: “Google is horribly evil. They want to start gathering the data that we’ve already collected about every aspect of your life!”

• [MM]

  Facebook, the paragon of privacy. What a bunch of juvenile hypocrites.

• [Anonymous]

  Given that B+M expected this to work, I have the strong suspicion that this kind of thing is “normal” for them and they didn’t expect any push back.