

The social network clearly views TikTok as a threat. The move is not entirely shocking coming from Facebook. Congresspeople and local officials publicly shared their concern about TikTok as a result of some of the stories Targeted Victory helped to disseminate. Targeted Victory, which has received hundreds of millions of dollars from Republican campaigns, was successful in doing just that.

The social media giant Meta has recently been the subject of increased scrutiny as a result of the revelations brought to light by Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen regarding the safety of children on Meta-owned platforms like Instagram. "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,” a director at Targeted Victory wrote in an email about the campaign's messaging.Įmployees even imagine possible headlines for coverage, such as "From dances to danger: how TikTok has become the most harmful social media space for kids."Īnother email from a staffer wrote about a "broader message" to deter Congress and other state officials from possible legislation targeting Facebook. In emails obtained by the Post, Targeted Victory employees strategized ways to spread negative stories about TikTok. The group kept an internal document that archived negative press TikTok received from this and other trends, such as the "devious licks" trend, a school property vandalization challenge that did exist on the platform, but actually originated on Facebook, according to a report from the podcast Reply All. However, according to the report, Targeted Victory helped spread the fake challenge and even boasted about local news coverage on the nonexistent TikTok trend that it was able to procure. It was a hoax that was initially spread via posts on Facebook. In the days after "Slap a Teacher" TikTok challenge spread, it became clear that such a trend did not exist on the platform.
TIK TOK CHALLENGES TV
Local news stations, especially, covered this news with TV segments on stations running from CBS Sacramento in California to WPLG Local 10 in Miami, Florida. This story about a concerning TikTok trend for children was spreading across the country. Since the challenge began to gain popularity, TikTok has removed and redirected its users from certain videos with the hashtag OrbeezChallenge.Last year, a link about a viral "Slap a Teacher" TikTok challenge was shared in a text message group for parents of kids in my son's first grade class.


Officials went on to say their company does not manufacture or sell any type of gun designed to fire its beads, which are intended as sensory toys for children. “Orbeez are designed for educational, creative, and sensory play and are not intended to be used as projectiles or inserted in mechanisms,” they told NPR in an interview. The manufacturer of the beads, Orbeez, has responded to the reports. “In some cases, it could result in felony charges and parents could also be liable for the actions of their kids.” “The police department will be pursuing criminal charges on all persons caught discharging these weapons at other persons on city property,” officials said. In their post, Peachtree City police showed a photo of a young boy whose face was bloodied after being attacked by a group of teens who fired modified gel pellets at the victim. As if that weren’t enough, another police department in Georgia said people are modifying the beads to be more painful.
