Meta’s response: Sensing anxiety from brand partners, Meta has taken steps to restore faith in its advertising ability, such as enabling brands to choose where their ads are placed. But a recent story from The Washington Post shows Meta is also trying to draw negative attention to competitors to diminish from its own.
- The Post found that Meta had hired conservative consulting firm Targeted Victory to drum up negativity around TikTok. Through a series of op-eds and fake controversies about “challenges” on the apps, Meta sought to “get the message out that while Meta is the current punching bag, TikTok is the real threat…” according to emails obtained by The Post.
- Evidence of the campaign goes as far back as February (before Meta had its own scandal about teens on Instagram), and it seems it was effective. TikTok published a report looking to dispel panic around teen safety and viral challenges in November, and even The Post itself published stories about now-debunked challenges like the “Slap a Teacher TikTok Challenge,” as Targeted Victory CEO Zac Moffatt pointed out on Twitter.
Looking forward: Meta may have succeeded in drawing negative attention to TikTok, but there’s no worming its way out of long-standing issues. With its smear campaign out in the open and yet another issue with its advertising products, Meta will have to find a long-term solution to appease advertisers.