https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2022/03/meta-cant-buy-tiktok-so-it-hired-gop-operatives-to-run-a-smear-campaign/

If you can’t beat ’em, smear ’em.

That appears to be Facebook’s approach when it comes to countering the threat from TikTok, according to a new report in The Washington Post. Meta, Facebook’s parent company, has hired Targeted Victory, a large Republican consulting firm, to place stories in op-eds in local newspapers and on local TV newscasts around the US, according to the report.