So this isn't okay but Google hiring pro lobbyists to swoon politicians for favorable laws isn't?
We need to get over this ideal that just because a company is in tech it's somehow "above" the business as usual tactics that have worked for generations.
1.Correct, a smear campaign is not the same as lobbying. Hence the outrage.
2. How is a smear campaign "business as usual"? Just because Zuckerberg has low ethical standards doesn't mean that you or I have to. As strange as it may seem, it's quite possible to run a successful business without psyops and Zero-sum mentality.
I would argue that an element of lobbying is in fact the practice of "smearing" or otherwise clouding the perception of a competitor or opposing viewpoint.
I think your classification of Zuckerberg as having low ethical standards is quite a laughable assumption. Do you know him personally or did you just watch the movie?
Why exactly is it a smear campaign? "Smear" to me implies the charges are false or unfair, not just that you use a sockpuppet to make them. Maybe what Facebook had their PR firm say about Social Circles is untrue or misleading, but no one seems to be arguing that point.
(Incidentally, I have no great love for Facebook and find them vaguely creepy, but Google also does a lot of creepy things privacy-wise, and that shouldn't be dismissed just because of the manner in which the charges were publicized.)
We need to get over this ideal that just because a company is in tech it's somehow "above" the business as usual tactics that have worked for generations.