{"id":4156,"date":"2022-04-02T16:14:28","date_gmt":"2022-04-02T16:14:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/all-news\/facebook-in-bare-knuckle-fight-with-tiktok"},"modified":"2022-04-02T16:56:07","modified_gmt":"2022-04-02T16:56:07","slug":"facebook-in-bare-knuckle-fight-with-tiktok","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/all-news\/facebook-in-bare-knuckle-fight-with-tiktok","title":{"rendered":"Facebook in \u2018bare-knuckle\u2019 fight with TikTok"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Sierra-Leone. <\/strong><\/span>The chief executive of a political consulting firm has responded to a report alleging Meta paid his company to \u201cundermine\u201d TikTok. Internal emails, apparently seen by the Washington Post, allegedly suggested Targeted Victory\u2019s campaign aimed to show TikTok \u201cas a danger to American children\u201d.<\/p>\n

Zac Moffatt tweeted that the Post\u2019s report mischaracterised their work and \u201ckey points are simply false\u201d. The BBC approached Meta for comment. A spokesperson said: \u201cWe believe all platforms, including TikTok, should face a level of scrutiny consistent with their growing success.\u201d<\/p>\n

The \u201cbare-knuckle\u201d campaign allegedly included placing opinion pieces and letters to the editor in US regional news outlets \u201cpromoting dubious stories about alleged TikTok trends that actually originated on Facebook\u201d, the Post journalists wrote.<\/p>\n

None of the opinion pieces or letters to the editor revealed that a Meta-funded group had been pushing them, the paper added. In response to the article, Mr Moffat tweeted that: \u201cThe story infers that the words of the letters to the editor were not the authors\u2019 own, nor did they know of Meta\u2019s involvement. That is false. They will confirm that.\u201d<\/p>\n

In internal emails, the paper claimed, Targeted Victory urged its partners to get stories into local media that linked TikTok to dangerous trends. \u201cDream would be to get stories with headlines like \u2018From dances to danger: how TikTok has become the most harmful social media space for kids\u2019,\u201d one Targeted Victory staff member allegedly wrote in an email apparently seen by the Post.<\/p>\n

The paper alleged that Targeted Victory encouraged operatives to amplify reports of dangerous trends linked to TikTok. This included a purported Devious Licks challenge, which encouraged damage to school property, and reports of a rumoured Slap a Teacher challenge, which an investigation by news site Insider suggested did not in fact exist.<\/p>\n

But journalistic investigations, the Post said, suggested that stories about both challenges began to spread on Facebook. Following publication, Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers \u2013 a large US teaching union \u2013 accused Facebook of fanning the flames of Devious Licks and terrifying \u201cteachers, students and parents across America as a result\u201d.<\/p>\n

Those fears were echoed by TikTok itself. In response to the article, the company told the BBC: \u201cWe are deeply concerned that the stoking of local media reports on alleged trends that have not been found on the platform could cause real world harm.\u201d<\/p>\n

Responding to the article, technology journalist Casey Newton wrote on his newsletter Platformer that the effect went beyond inconvenience, but it risked inspiring people to carry out the purported challenges.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven the fact that Meta might have helped to inspire such copycats ought to have been enough to kill this project when it was still being white-boarded,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

Mr Moffatt tweeted that The Post itself had reported on the purported TikTok challenges. Targeted Victory describes itself as \u201cright-of-centre\u201d, but Mr Moffatt said it managed \u201cbipartisan teams\u201d.<\/p>\n

In 2016, Mr Moffatt met with Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg as part of a group of high-profile conservative figures following allegations \u2013 which the firm denied \u2013 that it tampered with its Trending Topics feature, to promote \u201cprogressive\u201d views.<\/p>\n

Now it is Mr Moffatt\u2019s work with Meta that is attracting scrutiny. However, this latest incident is not the first time the strategies of firms hired by the social media giant have been criticised.<\/p>\n

In 2018, the New York Times exposed tactics used by a public relations company, Definers, hired by Facebook. The paper said the firm circulated a document falsely claiming anti-Facebook campaign group Freedom From Facebook was backed by the financier George Soros. Mr Zuckerberg said he had not been aware of the Definers actions and said the company would no longer work with the firm.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Sierra-Leone<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Sierra-Leone. The chief executive of a political consulting firm has responded to a report alleging Meta paid his company to \u201cundermine\u201d TikTok. Internal emails, apparently seen by the Washington Post, allegedly suggested Targeted Victory\u2019s campaign aimed to show TikTok \u201cas a danger to American children\u201d. Zac Moffatt tweeted that the Post\u2019s report mischaracterised […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":4155,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,8,9],"tags":[291,293,292],"class_list":["post-4156","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-homepage-english","category-miscellaneous","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-sierra-leone","tag-sierra-leone"],"yoast_head":"\nFacebook in \u2018bare-knuckle\u2019 fight with TikTok - Sierra Leone<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The chief executive of a political consulting firm has responded to a report alleging Meta paid his company to \u201cundermin ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/all-news\/facebook-in-bare-knuckle-fight-with-tiktok\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Facebook in \u2018bare-knuckle\u2019 fight with TikTok\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The chief executive of a political consulting firm has responded to a report alleging Meta paid his company to \u201cundermin ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/all-news\/facebook-in-bare-knuckle-fight-with-tiktok\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sierra Leone\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-04-02T16:14:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-04-02T16:56:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/sites\/16\/2022\/04\/img-62487ffcd5e0c.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"976\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"549\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/all-news\/facebook-in-bare-knuckle-fight-with-tiktok#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/all-news\/facebook-in-bare-knuckle-fight-with-tiktok\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Facebook in \u2018bare-knuckle\u2019 fight with TikTok\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-04-02T16:14:28+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-04-02T16:56:07+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/all-news\/facebook-in-bare-knuckle-fight-with-tiktok\"},\"wordCount\":637,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/all-news\/facebook-in-bare-knuckle-fight-with-tiktok#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/sites\/16\/2022\/04\/img-62487ffcd5e0c.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Sierra-Leone\",\"Sierra-Leone\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"homepage-english\",\"miscellaneous\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/all-news\/facebook-in-bare-knuckle-fight-with-tiktok#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/all-news\/facebook-in-bare-knuckle-fight-with-tiktok\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/all-news\/facebook-in-bare-knuckle-fight-with-tiktok\",\"name\":\"Facebook in \u2018bare-knuckle\u2019 fight with TikTok - 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