Meta Launched Anti-TikTok Campaigns and Faces Lawsuits Over Facebook Ads

Start brewing a giant teapot because we're spilling some tea today.

Today's drama is all about Meta, formerly known as Facebook, which is what we're talking all about in this 3MDD.

Apparently, Facebook had funded anti-TikTok campaigns through a GOP firm called Targeted Victory.


GOP stands for Grand Old Party, also known as the Republican Party.

But that's not the point because even Democrats and influential people were in on this smear campaign.

Here's what happened.

Meta had paid the Republican consulting firm Targeted Victory to launch nationwide campaigns to generate distrust against Facebook's main competitor: TikTok.

Targeted Victory had "planted op-eds and letters to the editor in major local and regional newspapers across the country."

One of the directors of the firm had told their staff in an email obtained by The Post: "Get the message out that 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."

"Punching bag" probably refers to Meta fighting to save their number of Facebook app users. Targeted Victory was hired after Facebook recorded losing a huge number of users for the first time in the app's history.

The most recent earnings report by Meta claimed that Facebook lost roughly 500,000 users by the end of the last year (2021).

Facebook has been scrutinized in the past for these anti-competitive business practices.

Allegedly, Zuckerberg once suggested that he would go on "destroy mode" if he couldn't own Instagram — yikes!

We'll have to see how this scandal plays out because it's time for another cup of tea.

Have you ever launched paid ads on Facebook?

Well, you and other Facebook advertisers can pursue class action over ad rates.

Currently, participants of the class action lawsuit are claiming that Facebook had lied to them and others about the potential reach of their ads. They believe the company had manipulated the "Potential Reach" tool to show inflated numbers.

On March 29th, 2022, US District Judge James Donato in San Francisco allowed millions of people and businesses to sue Meta if they paid for Facebook or Instagram ads since August 15th, 2014.

That's almost ten years ago!

The original lawsuit that started this goes all the way back to 2018.

A company called DZ Reserve and other advertisers claimed Facebook inflated the reach of their ads by increasing the number of potential viewers by as much as 400%. Facebook would then overcharge advertisers for 'premium' ad placements.

According to the lawsuit, executives at Facebook had known that they were skewing the impression data and inflating the price for years.

Since these businesses range in size from large enterprises to small ones and even down to the individual level, the judge approved that they all sue as one group. And with that, the judge expects Meta to try and dismiss the lawsuit.

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