| > The difference is that most people here really like Apple hardware, so they get a free pass I think it’s pretty clear the difference isn’t Apple vs Facebook (e.g. CSAM blowback) but boasting about yourself versus hiring someone to attack a competitor. An analogous comparison would be if Facebook said their algorithms benefited mental health more than competitors, or if Apple paid to have an op-ed in a newspaper talking about how Intel’s GPU’s might explode or something. The difference is that Apple’s slide was Apple’s slide and any bias was clear. Facebook went through backdoors and PR firms to sway local journalists and congressmen in an actually dark game of chess. > I’d need to see more evidence that Facebook was deliberately lying to really be concerned about this That’s the whole point. Facebook wasn’t lying, Targeted Victory was. Take your pick of the evidence: Firm director’s email: > get the message out that while Meta is the current punching bag, TikTok is the real threat especially as a foreign owned app > Campaign operatives were also encouraged to use TikTok’s prominence as a way to deflect from Meta’s own privacy and antitrust concerns. > rumors of the “devious licks” challenge initially spread on Facebook, not TikTok. > Targeted Victory worked to spread rumors of the “Slap a Teacher TikTok challenge” in local news… In reality, no such challenge existed on TikTok. Again, the rumor started on Facebook > In addition to planting local news stories, the firm has helped place op-eds targeting TikTok around the country, especially in key congressional districts. If that feels like a wall of text, it’s because it is, chock full of specific evidence Targeted Victory was manipulating congressmen and newspapers to report in a way benefitting them, all because they know that the TikTok algorithm is leagues superior and more user curated than their own outrage-bate dumpster fire. The authors aren’t relying on “anti-Facebook anger” anymore than it’s Facebook’s bed and now they need to lie in it after years of turning the web into a partisan surveillance state. This was a targeted campaign of disinformation ranging far further than one slide on a keynote. |