‘THE REAL THREAT’

Facebook Parent Meta Has Been Paying a GOP Firm to Sow Panic About TikTok

Internal emails reportedly show employees of Targeted Victory plotting to use the media and a lobbying campaign to turn parents against the popular Chinese-owned app.

Facebook’s parent company has been paying a Republican consulting firm to sow panic and distrust of rival social platform TikTok, according to The Washington Post. Internal emails seen by the Post reportedly show employees of Targeted Victory plotting to use the media and a lobbying campaign to turn parents against the popular Chinese-owned app. Employees of the consulting firm were urged 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 one email from a director in February, the Post reports. Another director is said to have floated the idea of using a local political reporter as a “backchannel” for spreading opposition to TikTok in a different email. Targeted Victory confirmed to the Post that the firm had worked for Meta for several years but declined to provide details on the anti-TikTok campaign, saying only that it was “proud of the work we have done.” A Meta spokesperson also confirmed the campaign, telling the Post: “We believe all platforms, including TikTok, should face a level of scrutiny consistent with their growing success.”