Facebook Parent Company Meta Reportedly Paid Republican Consulting Firm to Sabotage TikTok’s Image

Iesha March 31, 2022 News Leave a comment

To sabotage TikTok, Facebook’s parent company, Meta, allegedly spread false information that the platform is harmful to American society and children.

The Washington Post obtained internal emails that a Republican-affiliated firm called Targeted Victory was spreading misinformation about TikTok by saying that specific harmful trends originated there when they originated on Facebook.

According to reports, one of the emails shows that Targeted Victory aimed to “get the message out that while Meta is the current punching bag, TikTok is the real threat, especially as a foreign-owned app that is #1 in sharing data that young teens are using.”

In several other emails, the company discussed how to convince local news channels that dangerous trends are putting teens at risk and how to push fake narratives. The Post described the company as “one of the largest Republican consulting firms “ in the U.S.

Another internal message has stated, “Dream would be to get stories with headlines like ‘From dances to danger: how TikTok has become the most harmful social media space for kids.”

A spokesperson for Meta defended the company, saying, “We believe all platforms, including TikTok, should face a level of scrutiny consistent with their growing success.”

The emails, however, make it clear that Targeted Victory intended to spread negative coverage about TikTok by pushing specific trends, including the “devious licks“ challenge and the “Slap a Teacher” challenge“ that encouraged teens to hurt teachers. It is said that trend did not exist.

Additionally, the firm has successfully used fake op-eds and letters from concerned parents to spread anti-TikTok messaging, which local news outlets have picked up.

According to the report, this alleged sabotage attempt was carried out because of TikTok‘s foreign ownership by the Beijing-based company ByteDance. It was also noted that both Facebook and Meta received positive messaging from the firm.