Facebook hired a Republican consulting firm to run a campaign aimed at turning public sentiment against TikTok through op-eds and letters to the editor in regional news outlets and the promotion of stories about alleged TikTok trends that reportedly originated on Facebook, The Washington Post reported Wednesday.
The campaign sought to portray the popular video-sharing platform as a danger to American children and society, the Post reported, citing internal emails.
Operatives on the campaign were also encouraged to use TikTok’s popularity to deflect from antitrust and privacy concerns facing Meta, the Post reported.
“Bonus point if we can fit this into a broader message that the current bills/proposals aren’t where [state attorneys general] or members of Congress should be focused,” wrote a staffer for Targeted Victory, the consulting firm, according to the report.
It is an argument Meta, Facebook’s parent company, has used publicly before as well, highlighting TikTok’s prominence as a defense against allegations that Meta has monopoly power.
