https://apnews.com/f3d1a83f04f94d31ac750e1ea914171e

NEW YORK (AP) — Having already acknowledged that it did opposition research on George Soros, Facebook says No. 2 executive Sheryl Sandberg had asked staff if the billionaire philanthropist had financial motivations against the company.

Friday's statement is in response to a New York Times article that describes Sandberg asking Facebook staff to look into Soros' financial interests in speaking out against the company in January. Facebook said the company was already researching Soros when Sandberg sent an email asking if Soros had shorted Facebook stock. Shorting a stock is essentially taking a bet it will decline.