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Facebook says it asked an opposition research firm to link its critics to George Soros

Facebook's outgoing boss of policy and communications, Elliot Schrage, said he's taking the blame for the hiring of a controversial public-relations firm whose attacks on the company's critics led to accusations of anti-Semitism — and said it was Facebook that directed the firm to go after George Soros.

Definers, a PR and opposition-research firm, has come under intense scrutiny since the publication of a New York Times investigation that detailed how the firm attempted to smear critics of Facebook by linking them to the billionaire financier George Soros, who is Jewish, a line of attack that has been criticized as anti-Semitic.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg have denied any prior knowledge that Facebook was working with Definers, instead blaming the communications team broadly for the issue.

Sandberg has come under intense scrutiny following the company's latest round of controversies, with some Facebook investors now asking if they should be worried about her leaving.

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