Facebook parent company Meta is paying one of the biggest Republican consulting firms in the country to orchestrate a nationwide campaign seeking to turn the public against TikTok. (WaPo)
The consulting firm, Targeted Victory, pushed 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,” according to an internal email from February reported by The Washington Post. (NY Post)
The campaign 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 Guardian)
Several viral trends, for instance, were widely reported as having originated on TikTok, including the “devious licks” challenge, which encouraged students to steal various school items and the “Slap a Teacher” challenge, which encouraged students to slap their teachers—despite having originated on Facebook. (Insider)
Targeted Victory is one of the biggest vendors for Republican campaigns. In 2020, the firm earned over $230 million—and its largest clients were from groups like the pro-Trump super PAC, America First Action. Republicans have been some of TikTok’s harshest critics. Lawmakers like Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) have pushed for the app to be investigated for censorship—and former President Donald Trump signed an executive order to ban it outright. (The Verge)