Is TikTok ‘Harmful’ for Young People, or is This a Smear Campaign by Facebook?

Turns out problematic challenges like “Slap a Teacher” were just a hoax.

With teens spending “2-3x more time” on TikTok than Instagram, there’s no question the app is hugely popular—and scrutiny can only be a good thing.

There are piles of articles on the effect of TikTok on young people’s mental health and behaviour. But after a shocking revelation by The Washington Post, you may need to take some headlines with a grain of salt.

Reports reveal that Meta, the parent company of Facebook, hired a Republican marketing firm called Targeted Victory to generate bad press for TikTok.

In leaked emails, the director for the firm said they need to “get the message out…that TikTok is the real threat especially as a foreign owned app that is #1 in sharing data that young teens are using”.

Their tactic? Pushing local media to report dangerous teen trends on the app—some of which didn’t even exist or originated (ironically) on Facebook.

In October 2021, outlets started reporting the “Slap a Teacher TikTok challenge”. As the name suggests, students were allegedly physically assaulting teachers across the US.

But in reality, there were no videos on TikTok of this occurring. The challenge did not exist.

An investigation by Anna Foley at the podcast network, Gimlet, also suggests the “devious licks” challenge started on Facebook, not TikTok, despite reports.

The challenge involved students vandalising and ransacking schools. One kid stealing a hand sanitiser unit blew way out of proportion, and Targeted Victory made sure to pin the blame on Facebook’s rival.

A TikTok spokesperson told The Washington Post the company is “deeply concerned” about “the stoking of local media reports on alleged trends that have not been found on the platform.”

We wanna clarify—stealing and vandalising is never cool. But take this as a reminder to be weary of news reports in a time when, unfortunately, a lot of it may not be exactly what it seems.