Facebook board defends COO Sheryl Sandberg

Facebook`s board of directors has defended Chief Operating Officer (COO) Sheryl Sandberg`s request to look into billionaire critic George Soros` alleged interest in tarnishing the image of the social networking giant.

According to a report in CNET on Wednesday, the board said in a letter that Sandberg "asked her staff to look into Soros` financial motivations after he called companies like Facebook and Google a "menace".

"Facebook staff immediately initiated research to attempt to understand the motivations driving the criticism, financial or otherwise," read the letter.

"Sandberg`s question was entirely appropriate given her role as COO," it added.

A New York Times investigation in November suggested that the social network hired a Republican-owned political consulting and PR firm that "dug up dirt on its competitors" including Soros.

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Facebook hired Definers Public Affairs, a Washington DC-based conservative firm which did PR work for the social networking giant "and dug up dirt on the company`s competitors and its critics", said the report. Reacting to the report, Facebook CEO Zuckerberg and Sandberg denied they had any prior knowledge about this firm.