Facebook owner reportedly paid Republican firm to push message TikTok is ‘the real threat’

[Kooky]

Facebook owner reportedly paid Republican firm to push message TikTok is ‘the real threat’

Meta, the owner of Facebook, Instagram and other social media platforms, is reportedly paying a notable GOP consulting firm to create public distrust around TikTok.

The campaign, launched by Republican strategy firm Targeted Victory, placed op-eds and letters to the editor in various publications, accusing TikTok of being a danger to American children, along with other disparaging accusations.

The firm wanted 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,” wrote a director for the firm in a February email, part of a trove of emails revealed by the Washington Post.

“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,’” another staffer wrote.

Campaign operatives promoted stories to local media, including some unsubstantiated claims, that tied TikTok to supposedly dangerous trends popular among teenagers – despite those trends originating on Facebook.

Such trends included the viral 2021 “devious lick” trend, where students vandalized school property. Targeted Victory pushed stories on “devious lick” to local publications in Michigan, Minnesota, Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Washington DC. But the trend originally spread on Facebook, according to an investigation by Anna Foley with the podcast Reply All.

Campaign workers also used anti-TikTok messages to deflect from criticisms that Meta had received for its privacy and antitrust policies.

I keep wondering, how much are American corporations piggybacking on the rising anti-Chinese sentiments of US politicians, and how much are they actually stoking these sentiments for their own gain?

 

[Debater Slayer]

Any politicking aside, some of the content on TikTok and social media in general indeed strikes me as unhealthy for children.

 

[74x12]

Facebook owner reportedly paid Republican firm to push message TikTok is ‘the real threat’




I keep wondering, how much are American corporations piggybacking on the rising anti-Chinese sentiments of US politicians, and how much are they actually stoking these sentiments for their own gain?

Corrupt facebook pays political hacks to target competition? No surprise.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

Any politicking aside, some of the content on TikTok and social media in general indeed strikes me as unhealthy for children.

It's unhealthy for people in general.

 

[Twilight Hue]

I could care less about Tic Toc no more than i care about Facebook.

 

[Father Heathen]

Any politicking aside, some of the content on TikTok and social media in general indeed strikes me as unhealthy for children.

It's a cultural latrine.

 

[Twilight Hue]

It's unhealthy for people in general.

It's a great hook up however for self agrandizing narcissistic and sociopathic people.

 

[ADigitalArtist]

I use tiktok daily as it's the best social media platform for the arts. Its algorithm is much more sophisticated than Twitter and Facebook and doesn't operate on hate clicks. So my tiktok front page is visual and music arts, cooking, medicine (especially neurodivergent topics) and the occasional animal video.

Does it have its problems? Yeah. So does the human condition. But I'd take it over Facebook any day. Especially with Facebook's recent string of boneheaded security leaks.

 

[Twilight Hue]

I use tiktok daily as it's the best social media platform for the arts. Its algorithm is much more sophisticated than Twitter and Facebook and doesn't operate on hate clicks. So my tiktok front page is visual and music arts, cooking, medicine (especially neurodivergent topics) and the occasional animal video.

Does it have its problems? Yeah. So does the human condition. But I'd take it over Facebook any day. Especially with Facebook's recent string of boneheaded security leaks.

On a more serious note, China has a hated sub culture on the lower end of the communist social credit tier that uses tic toc as a messenger tool and expression of a class of people typically looked down upon.