Facebook using smear tactics against China’s TikTok, US news report says
- Parent company Meta is said to have hired Republican consulting firm Targeted Victory to launch a ‘nationwide campaign’ against the rival platform
- Dozens of PR firms were allegedly used to plant local news stories and help place op-eds targeting TikTok around the US
Eleven years ago, Facebook was caught red-handed after it hired a prominent public relations firm to try to plant stories harshly criticising Google’s privacy practices in leading news outlets.
In 2018, it hired the PR firm Definers to do opposition research on the company’s critics, including billionaire philanthropist George Soros. The company’s long-time head of communications, Elliot Schrage, took the blame for approving the hiring of Definers and similar firms and left Facebook.
On Wednesday, The Washington Post reported that Meta, Facebook’s parent company, is using similar tactics to go after another rival TikTok. Meta, the report said, hired a Republican consulting firm called Targeted Victory to “orchestrate a nationwide campaign” against TikTok.
Targeted Victory, according to the Post, contracted with dozens of public relations firms across the US to help “sway public opinion against TikTok” by planting local news stories and helping place op-eds targeting TikTok around the country, the story says.
Meta confirmed that it has hired Targeted Victory.