Meta Reportedly Hires Conservative Consulting Firm Targeted Victory To Vilify Its Competitor TikTok

According to a Washington Post story published earlier today, Facebook's parent company Meta hired Targeted Victory, a conservative consulting firm, to run a PR campaign against TikTok. The goals of the campaign were to convince lawmakers and the American public that TikTok poses a threat to the safety of children and is a bad influence on society.

SCOOP: Meta is paying Targeted Victory, one of the biggest Republican consulting firms, to quietly orchestrate a nationwide campaign to turn the public against TikTok. We got a hold of documents outlining their plan. Read my and @drewharwell storyhttps://t.co/EK5P56v3WP

— Taylor Lorenz (@TaylorLorenz) March 30, 2022

The story, written by WaPo reporters Taylor Lorenz and Drew Hartwell, details the strategy Targeted Victory used. The firm worked through local news networks to plant stories and skew coverage against TikTok. Often, this involved writing fake op-eds or feeding reporters information about TikTok trends and rumors about the platform. Reportedly, a fake story about the “Slap a Teacher Challenge,” which never really existed on TikTok beyond reactions to news coverage, trended as a result of Targeted Victory’s efforts.

If you were wondering why that "Slap A Teacher TikTok Trend" that never actually existed got so much coverage in local news, TARGETED VICTORY PLANTED THE STORY BASED ON A RUMOR 𝙏𝙃𝘼𝙏 𝙎𝙏𝘼𝙍𝙏𝙀𝘿 𝙊𝙉 𝙁𝘼𝘾𝙀𝘽𝙊𝙊𝙆 https://t.co/ysXZggroVu

— Alyssa Franke (@AlyssaFranke) March 30, 2022

So, Facebook agrees that social media is harmful to children?"The firm, Targeted Victory, pushed local operatives across the country to boost messages calling TikTok a threat to American children."https://t.co/QyuyIpoquY

— Daniel Malmer -- Долой Путина (@danielmalmer) March 30, 2022

Facebook paid GOP firm to malign TikTok“The firm, Targeted Victory, pushed local operatives across the country to boost messages calling TikTok a threat to American children. “Dream would be to get stories with headlines like ‘From dances to danger,'" #QuitFacebook https://t.co/SkZGKxxK4L

— Kellyanne Parrish (@kellyparrishnc) March 30, 2022

These tactics are remarkably similar to what political consulting firms do for candidates, stoking rumors and attempting to manipulate media outlets into covering certain stories. Conservative outfits, in particular, (see the Sinclair Broadcast Group) have been known to work through local news networks, which are purportedly "easier to game" than national outlets.

"We need 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,” one staffer wrote https://t.co/EK5P56v3WP

— Taylor Lorenz (@TaylorLorenz) March 30, 2022

Targeted Victory, which is run by the former digital director of Mitt Romney presidential campaign, rakes in hundreds of million dollars a year in revenue. According to public records, Meta has employed the firm’s services for years. Targeted Victory describes itself as having a “right-of-center perspective” and has in the past worked with Republican campaigns and hand-in-hand with firms like the controversial Cambridge Analytica. Users online were quick to point out the links between Meta, the universe of conservative consulting firms and other companies.

This story is incredible, in particular the way that it so clearly shows how Meta/Facebook is so integrated into the right wing media/propaganda apparatus https://t.co/13ltl8CuRi

— annemarie navar-gill (@annienavar) March 30, 2022

Old enough to remember the Targeted Victory and Cambridge Analytica Christmas party (via @WendySiegelman) pic.twitter.com/A2zZJ7qqK6

— David Carroll🦅 (@profcarroll) March 30, 2022

anyway, yeah, the CEO of Targeted Victory also works for AT&T, which is why you'll likely see some similarities in sleazy tactics pic.twitter.com/9WgHayF647

— Karl Bode (@KarlBode) March 30, 2022

TikTok is the most-downloaded social media app right now, and it's taking up more and more mindshare and memeshare. As some commentators pointed out, it makes sense that Meta would go after TikTok, a major competitor which poses a threat to its business and platforms like Instagram.

This smear campaign shows just how scared Meta is of TikTok. A former high-level Facebooker told us: "When Mark [Zuckerberg] identifies a potential existential threat to the company, he’ll work to destroy it" https://t.co/zYd7eLOfgO

— Drew Harwell (@drewharwell) March 30, 2022

The story also led some online to speculate what it must be like to work at Targeted Victory. The primary sources used by the Washington Post were leaked internal emails, and many wondered about why and how the information came out.

It must be so fun to work at Targeted Victory. I would LOVE (and be exceptionally good at!) coming up with the creative headlines. https://t.co/H9DjJWDTAz

— cindy (@cindy__chen) March 30, 2022

Sheryl Sandberg loves oppo so much. More hilariously, what a massively embarrassing story for Targeted Victory given it looks like their staff clearly leaked to press. https://t.co/bgy5dDudBs

— tyson brody (@tysonbrody) March 30, 2022

In a Twitter thread earlier, Targeted Victory CEO Zac Moffatt pushed back against the article, stressing his "right-of-center" firm's bipartisanship while pointing out that Lorenz and Hartwell are Democrats, implicitly accusing the Washington Post of partisanship. Moffatt also claims that the Post published false information, citing an inference made by the reporters that he disagrees with and an instance of "hyperbolic" language, but does not deny that his firm has done work for Meta and against TikTok.

Today’s Washington Post story not only mischaracterizes the work we do, but key points are simply false. We tried to reach out to The Washington Post to further talk through them, but never got a response. I want to address my concerns: 1/

— Zac Moffatt (@ZacMoffatt) March 30, 2022

As shown in the high revenues billed by Targeted Victory, which is only one among many consulting, lobbying and influence-peddling operations active in the political and tech worlds, shaping public opinion is big business.