US report on internal emails: Facebook is funding smear campaign against Tiktok

US report on internal mail
Facebook is funding a smear campaign against TikTok

3/31/2022 9:54 PM

There are always reports of allegedly dangerous Tiktok trends. Now a report points to the involvement of Facebook and its parent company, Meta. Internal emails show that a company commissioned by Meta is successfully spreading bad news about Tiktok.

According to a media report, Facebook’s parent company Meta has funded a smear campaign against its rival Tiktok. The “Washington Post” Citing internal emails, it was reported that Meta had hired consulting firm Targeted Victory to shed a bad light on the video platform, which is very popular with young people. Therefore, the Chinese branch of the Bytedance Group should be presented as a danger to children in the United States and society as a whole

According to the report, Targeted Victory, among other things, attempted to send critical letters to the editor and stories about alleged dangerous Tiktok trends in the US domestic media. Alleged challenges of vandalizing schools or hitting teachers have been attributed to Tiktok, although no such calls have been made on the platform. According to research, the rumor first spread on Facebook. Letters from the alleged parents were also sent to newspapers.

Targeted Victory confirmed when asked to work with Meta and did not deny posting negative information about Tiktok. “We are proud of our work highlighting the dangers of TikTok,” Zack Moffat, president of the consulting firm close to conservative Republicans, wrote on Twitter. But in the Washington Post report, the work was misrepresented.

Meta responded to a request from Agence France-Presse with just one sentence: “We believe that all platforms, including Tiktok, should undergo a review to reflect their growing success.” In a statement, Tiktok said it was “concerned” that media reports about alleged trends not present on the video platform could lead to real-world harm.

Tiktok has become a major competitor to Facebook in recent years. According to analysts, Tiktok was the most downloaded app in 2020, surpassing the best Facebook app, Messenger and Whatsapp messaging services. Meanwhile, former US President Donald Trump tried to force Bytedance to sell Tiktok to US investors, citing national security as the reason. However, the project was eventually abandoned.

On the other hand, Facebook has repeatedly had to deal with negative headlines in recent years, among other things due to the protection of privacy and youth as well as the dissemination of hate messages and false information. In October, the internet giant gave itself a new name, Meta.