Open Society president Patrick Gaspard says he "was shocked to learn from the New York Times that you and your colleagues at Facebook hired a Republican opposition research firm to stir up animus toward George Soros. As you know, there is a concerted right-wing effort the world over to demonize Mr. Soros and his foundations, which I lead—an effort which has contributed to death threats and the delivery of a pipe bomb to Mr. Soros' home."

Soros, as Gaspard notes, has long been a target of right-wing scorn and attacks based on his Jewish identity. "The notion," continued Gaspard, "that your company, at your direction, actively engaged in the same behavior to try to discredit people exercising their First Amendment rights to protest Facebook's role in disseminating vile propagandaWorld Economic Forum in January, he had attacked Facebook and Google, describing them as a monopolist "menace" with "neither the will nor the inclination to protect society against the consequences of their actions." Definers pressed reporters to explore the financial connections between Mr. Soros's family or philanthropies and groups that were members of Freedom from Facebook, such as Color of Change, an online racial justice organization, as well as a progressive group founded by Mr. Soros's son.

Rashad Robinson, the executive director of Color of Change, which has been openly critical of Facebook's handling of hate speech on its platform, told the Guardian in an interview that the antisemitic smear campaign orchestrated by the PR firm hired by Facebook was both "outrageous and concerning."

"This narrative has really dangerous antisemitic