"Devious Licks" and other Tik Tok viral teencrime stories were faked by a Republican PR firm working for Facebook
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Who had the above headline on their 2020s BS bingo card? Taylor Lorenz and Drew Harwell report that Facebook hired a bunch of GOP operatives to smear competitor Tik Tok as a malign foreign influence on children. Most of those viral local stories about teens smashing up bathrooms, slapping teachers and so on? They were either happening on Facebook itself or completely bogus.
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,' " one campaign director said.
… One trend Targeted Victory sought to enhance through its work was the "devious licks" challenge, which showed students vandalizing school property. Through the "Bad TikTok Clips" document, the firm pushed stories about the "devious licks" challenge in local media across Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Rhode Island and Washington, D.C.
BS generated by Targeted Victory appeared in The Denver Post and The Des Moines Register—and on local TV affiliates galore.
The firm is one of the biggest recipients of Republican campaign spending, earning more than $237 million in 2020, according to data compiled by OpenSecrets. Its biggest payments came from national GOP congressional committees and America First Action, a pro-Trump super PAC.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technolo ... d-victory/Facebook, where your grandfolks get lied to about how terrible the kids are.
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The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.
If you're not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed, and loving the people who are doing the oppressing. —Malcolm X
Just a reminder: under international law, an occupying power has no right of self-defense, and those who are occupied have the right and duty to liberate themselves by any means possible.
31 Mar 2022, 1:04 am
