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Facebook paid Republican strategy firm to malign TikTok

washingtonpost.com

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Re: Facebook paid Republican strategy firm to malign TikTok

#211

Post by Clubber »

ModernMech wrote: post #154
Clubber wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, political division sells papers. I looked for the "opinion" label, which is used to justify this type of manipulation but didn't see one. It's an article manipulating you talking about how Facebook uses a company that the GOP uses (and probably Dems too) to manipulate you. I suspect it wouldn't mention that some of these articles this company uses to manipulate you are probably published in The Washington Post,…

First of all the word Republican does not even appear in the title of the wall piece. It appears in the first paragraph to characterize the firm, which is a fact and how they characterize themselves. The word Republican appears a total of 4 times in the entire price. I’m really failing to see manipulation or opinions. Can you point them out?

>Can you point them out?

Sure, to me it reads like Facebook and the GOP are working hand in hand to defame poor startup TikTok. In reality, Facebook donates millions of dollars to the Democratic Party to ensure their operations and ... practices ... are safely legal and unregulated.

https://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/meta/totals?id=D000033563

I'm not certain how much different it would have made to the main thrust of the story to mention that it worked with a GOP firm. Based on the donations, I'm pretty sure they have used Democrat firms as well for similar purposes, if not this one. The author doesn't mention it, but assuming omission means it didn't happen isn't a safe assumption.

Another point, not sure it's a realistic idea to paint TikTok as anything other than a data harvesting tool for the CCP. Seems like they would be similar to Kapersky in that it's just a spying / infiltration tool used by adversarial governments.

Re: Facebook paid Republican strategy firm to malign TikTok

#212

Post by woodruffw »

dfxm12 wrote: post #184
woodruffw wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> as if there's any meaning to it other than to malign Facebook. I don't think this is malignment, per se: Facebook makes a big show of being a progressive company (internally) with a nominally neutral political outlook. Hiring a Republican strategy firm undermines that image: it demonstrates that, push come to shove, Facebook's commitment to these things is primarily a facade intended to deflect criticism.

Facebook makes a big show of being a progressive company (internally) with a nominally neutral political outlook. Ask any progressive, they will say there's nothing politically neutral about preventing unionization: https://theintercept.com/2020/06/11/facebook-workplace-union... I also don't think people are falling for rainbow capitalism internally or not. I think people generally understand that it is just a show a…

We’re in agreement. The point I was making is that it isn’t “malignment” because it clearly is in line with Facebook’s actual values.

Re: Facebook paid Republican strategy firm to malign TikTok

#213

Post by pwython »

coldpie wrote: post #69
PragmaticPulp wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> - having Facebook/Meta experience on your resume starts hurting you against others who don't Would you penalize a mechanical engineer for having Volkswagen on their resume because you read about the VW emissions scandal? Should we refuse to hire anyone who interned for politicians who were later involved in scandals? Of course not, because it’s dumb to punish former engineers for something a previous employer did o…

VW emissions scandal is small potatoes compared to what Facebook is doing to the world. Working for a war machine company (Lockheed, GD, etc) would be a much better analogy, and I think the question is a valid one for employees of those companies, too.

The VW emissions violations are 100% proven deceit among customers and governments, as nefarious programming in their vehicles is much harder to detect than say, an editorial funded by FB spreading rumors about a competitor where the reader can form their own opinion. Unethical, yea, but 'small potatoes' compared to VW.

Re: Facebook paid Republican strategy firm to malign TikTok

#214

Post by curiousgal »

numair wrote: post #193

In case you think this is some esoteric issue involving kids’ stuff — keep in mind that the founder of TikTok was one of the most balanced voices within China, who argued that the country needed to engage with the West in a healthier manner. Zuckerberg et al and their incessant lobbying for that TikTok ban basically vaporized that guy’s pull within China, which eliminated a super-valuable asset for the West. So, yeah…

> the single greatest threat to Western society outside of Russia

I can't help but roll my eyes whenever I come across such statements. Which one is it now guys? Russia or China or Iran or Muslims or Liberals or etc.?

The single greatest threat to Western society is itself.

Re: Facebook paid Republican strategy firm to malign TikTok

#215

Post by user3939382 »

numair wrote: post #193

In case you think this is some esoteric issue involving kids’ stuff — keep in mind that the founder of TikTok was one of the most balanced voices within China, who argued that the country needed to engage with the West in a healthier manner. Zuckerberg et al and their incessant lobbying for that TikTok ban basically vaporized that guy’s pull within China, which eliminated a super-valuable asset for the West. So, yeah…

No post body was provided.

Re: Facebook paid Republican strategy firm to malign TikTok

#216

Post by eunos »

numair wrote: post #193

In case you think this is some esoteric issue involving kids’ stuff — keep in mind that the founder of TikTok was one of the most balanced voices within China, who argued that the country needed to engage with the West in a healthier manner. Zuckerberg et al and their incessant lobbying for that TikTok ban basically vaporized that guy’s pull within China, which eliminated a super-valuable asset for the West. So, yeah…

Trump (and Pompeo) destroys the liberal oriented ideology in China much more effectively than whatever Xi did.

Re: Facebook paid Republican strategy firm to malign TikTok

#217

Post by eli_gottlieb »

user3939382 wrote: post #215
numair wrote: post #193

In case you think this is some esoteric issue involving kids’ stuff — keep in mind that the founder of TikTok was one of the most balanced voices within China, who argued that the country needed to engage with the West in a healthier manner. Zuckerberg et al and their incessant lobbying for that TikTok ban basically vaporized that guy’s pull within China, which eliminated a super-valuable asset for the West. So, yeah…

Quoted post unavailable.

>I’d say the single greatest threat at the moment is hyper-aggressive, unnecessary NATO expansion at the behest of the “defense” industry provoking other nuclear powers into armed conflicts.

Nobody was proposing to expand NATO until Russia invaded a country that had no other defense umbrella.

Re: Facebook paid Republican strategy firm to malign TikTok

#218

Post by jollybean »

numair wrote: post #193

In case you think this is some esoteric issue involving kids’ stuff — keep in mind that the founder of TikTok was one of the most balanced voices within China, who argued that the country needed to engage with the West in a healthier manner. Zuckerberg et al and their incessant lobbying for that TikTok ban basically vaporized that guy’s pull within China, which eliminated a super-valuable asset for the West. So, yeah…

"Facebook continues to be the single greatest threat to Western society outside of Russia"

This is ridiculous hyperbole.

And TikTok, as a Chinese company whereupon they can be compelled to do the bidding of the CCP at any time, in whatever terms, remains problematic.

It doesn't matter what the 'founder' thinks.

Re: Facebook paid Republican strategy firm to malign TikTok

#219

Post by pessimizer »

AlexandrB wrote: post #174
datalopers wrote: post #121

Facebook is using the same firm to malign Roblox with the same strategy.

Like most adults, most of what I know about Roblox comes secondhand from the media. Recently I saw[1] a pretty damning video about Roblox's lack of moderation and exploitation of its users. My basic perception at this point is that TikTok, Facebook, and Roblox all deserve each other. Hopefully they waste their money attacking each other until they mutually self-destruct. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTMF6xEiAa…

That damning video could have been indirectly paid for by Facebook. I'm a fan of the Shut Up Sit Down guys, but they are pros.

Re: Facebook paid Republican strategy firm to malign TikTok

#220

Post by Leary »

numair wrote: post #193

In case you think this is some esoteric issue involving kids’ stuff — keep in mind that the founder of TikTok was one of the most balanced voices within China, who argued that the country needed to engage with the West in a healthier manner. Zuckerberg et al and their incessant lobbying for that TikTok ban basically vaporized that guy’s pull within China, which eliminated a super-valuable asset for the West. So, yeah…

Regardless of what people think about Facebook or Tiktok, this kind of behaviour is anti competitive.

If Facebook did this to Tiktok, you can bet it tried similar tactics against Snapchat.

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