Meta paid a consulting firm to slander TikTok

On March 30, 2022, it became known that Meta (recognized as extremist and banned in Russia) paid one of the largest republican consulting firms in the United States to organize a nationwide campaign aimed at turning the public against TikTok.

According to internal e-mails provided by the Washington Post, Targeted Victory employees worked to undermine TikTok 's position through a nationwide media campaign and lobbying, presenting a fast-growing app owned by Beijing's ByteDance company as dangerous to American children and society. Tactics of "a goly fist" ‎, long ago become the widespread phenomenon in the sphere of policy, becomes more and more noticeable in the technological industry where the companies fight for cultural relevance, and it falls on time when Facebook is under pressure to return young users.

Meta paid a consulting firm to slander TikTok

Campaign operators were also advised to use TikTok fame as a way to distract from Meta's privacy and antitrust concerns.

In other emails, Targeted Victory urged partners to send materials to local media linking TikTok to dangerous teenage trends to show the alleged harm to the app.

Targeted Victory worked to increase negative TikTok coverage through a Google document called "Bad TikTok Clips," which was distributed internally and contained links to dubious local news citing TikTok as a source of dangerous teenage trends. Collaborating with the company, local government representatives were encouraged to promote these alleged trends TikTok on their sites in order to put pressure on lawmakers and force them to act.

The firm tried to use both real cause for concern and unreasonable anxiety to sow doubts about the popular app. One of the emails outlining recent negative stories about TikTok mixed reasonable questions, mainly about corporate property and TikTok practices, with exaggerated stories about young users recording themselves in inappropriate form - the very panic sentiments on social networks that have long left many users of social networks, including Facebook.

At the same time, the agency worked on "proactive coverage" of Facebook in local newspapers, radio and television broadcasts, including sending letters and materials that optimistic about the role of Facebook, for example, in supporting black businesses.

Targeted Victory has entered into contracts with dozens of public relations firms across the United States to change public opinion against TikTok. In addition to posting local news, the firm facilitated anti- TikTok articles across the country, especially in key congressional districts.

Targeted Victory refused to answer questions about the campaign, saying only that it had represented Meta for several years and was "proud of the work done."

Meta spokesman Andy Stone defended the campaign, saying:

We believe that all platforms, including TikTok, should be subjected to a thorough analysis commensurate with their growing success.

A TikTok spokesman said the company was "deeply concerned" about "fueling local media reports about alleged trends that were not detected on the platform."^[1]

Notes