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    Facebook resorts to old smear tactics against TikTok

    By SHOOTUpdated:No Comments1245 Views
    Facebook's Meta logo sign is seen at the company headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif., on, Oct. 28, 2021. Meta, Facebook’s parent company, hired a Republican consulting firm called Targeted Victory to “orchestrate a nationwide campaign” against TikTok, The Washington Post reported on Wednesday, March 30, 2022. (AP Photo/Tony Avelar, File)
    WASHINGTON (AP) --

    Eleven years ago, Facebook was caught red-handed after it hired a prominent public relations firm to try to plant stories harshly criticizing 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 longtime 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 Post reported, 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 U.S. 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.

    "We believe all platforms, including TikTok, should face a level of scrutiny consistent with their growing success," spokesman Andy Stone said in a statement.

    Zac Moffatt, the CEO of Targeted Victory, said the company "manages bipartisan teams on behalf of our clients."

    "It is public knowledge we have worked with Meta for several years and we are proud of the work we have done," he said in a statement.

    The Post obtained internal emails from Targeted Victory that outlined a campaign to undermine TikTok, which is owned by the Chinese company ByteDance. The firm used a mix of "genuine concerns and unfounded anxieties" about TikTok in order to try to turn public and political sentiment against it.

    According to the report, Targeted Victory was also working to get "proactive coverage" about Facebook into local media, including "submitting letters and opinion pieces speaking glowingly of Facebook's role in, for instance, supporting Black-owned businesses."

    "We 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," TikTok said in an emailed statement.

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    Tags:FacebookMetaTargeted VictoryTikTok



    William Dafoe, Jonathan Bailey and Peter Dinklage join the voice cast for Starburn Industries’ “Lincoln in the Bardo”

    Friday, August 28, 2026
    Peter Dinklage (photo by Whitney Matewe)

    Actors Willem Dafoe, Jonathan Bailey and Peter Dinklage have joined the voice cast of Starburns Industries’ “Lincoln in the Bardo,” based on acclaimed author George Saunders’ New York Times bestseller and 2017 Booker Prize-winner.  Saunders adapted the screenplay, with Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Duke Johnson directing.  It was announced earlier that Tom Hanks stars as the 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln, in the live action portion of the film.  CAA Media Finance and WME Independent are handling sales at the upcoming TIFF: The Market.

    The film employs a unique blend of stop-motion animation and live action to explore one of the most intimate moments of Lincoln’s life, centering on his relationship with his recently deceased eleven-year-old son.  Blending history and imagination, the story unfolds through an unforgettable ensemble of characters – living and dead, historical and invented – to explore themes of love, empathy, and the human capacity for connection in the face of unimaginable grief.

    Reverend Everly Thomas – the ghost of a minister who died believing he would go to heaven, but, to his dismay, found out otherwise – is voiced by Dafoe.  Bailey is voicing Roger Bevins, the ghost of a young gay man who took his own life over a failed love affair and instantly regretted it.  Dinklage is voicing Hans Vollman, a ghost obsessed with his dream of being reunited with his much-younger wife.

    Four-time Academy Award nominee Dafoe’s credits include animated films “Finding Nemo,” “Fantastic Mr. Fox” and “The Boy and the Heron,” as well as “At Eternity’s Gate,” “The Florida Project,” “Shadow of the Vampire” and seminal Vietnam movie... Read More

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