• Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg told the company's communications staff to conduct research on the financial interests of liberal billionaire George Soros, The New York Times reports.

• The request came after Soros bashed Facebook and Google in a January speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, calling them a "menace."

• A spokesperson for Facebook told CNBC the company researched possible motivations behind Soros' criticism of Facebook in January, before Sandberg inquired about Soros.

Facebook FB Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg told the company's communications staff to carry out research on the financial interests of liberal billionaire George Soros, The New York Times reports .

Sandberg asked for the information in an email in January to senior communications and policy executives, the Times reported late Thursday, citing three unnamed sources with knowledge of her request.

The request came after George Soros bashed Facebook and Google in a January speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, calling them a "menace." At the time, Facebook was facing new scrutiny over its handling of Russian misinformation campaigns and the proliferation of hate speech its platform.

Sandberg told subordinates to look into Soros' criticism and whether he stood to gain financially from the attacks, the Times said.

A spokesperson for Facebook told CNBC the company researched possible motivations behind Soros' criticism of Facebook in January, before Sandberg inquired about Soros.

"Mr. Soros is a prominent investor and we looked into his investments and trading activity related to Facebook. That research was already underway when Sheryl sent an email asking if Mr. Soros had shorted Facebook's stock," the spokesperson said. "Sheryl never directed research on Freedom from Facebook. But as she said before she takes full responsibility for any activity that happened on her watch."

Freedom from Facebook is an anti-Facebook group.

Earlier this month, an extensively reported New York Times article described how CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Sandberg downplayed internal efforts to assess Russia's misinformation campaigns, and then tried to deflect public scrutiny onto Facebook's competitors instead.

The report added that even as Facebook claimed some criticism of the company was anti-Semitic, a Republican-linked opposition research firm it worked with was trying to plant the idea that Soros — himself a frequent target of anti-Semitic attacks — was behind the growing anti-Facebook movement.