Meta bans TikTok ads on its platforms in US, Japan and other countries — SkimNews
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- Meta banned advertisements by ByteDance, TikTok's Chinese parent, on Facebook and Instagram in the US, Canada, Egypt, Indonesia, Japan, Thailand, and Vietnam, effective immediately on Oct 8.
- The policy extends to third-party advertisers running campaigns that link to TikTok or other ByteDance properties in those seven countries.
- Meta framed the move competitively: "We don't have to run ads from a competitor whose goal is to pull people off our apps," the company told Reuters.
- TikTok and ByteDance did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment; TikTok counts more than 200 million users in the US.
- The ad ban escalates a parallel teen-safety pressure campaign — in August, Meta settled up to US$18 billion with US states over social media harms to children and is urging TikTok and YouTube to adopt similar child-usage limits.
- TikTok reached its own settlement with Alabama in September requiring new usage limits and enhanced age-verification measures for users in the state.
- TikTok operates in the US through a majority American-owned joint venture following a deal that averted a US ban on the app; Bloomberg News first reported Meta's ad ban on Thursday.
Why it matters: Meta is using its gatekeeper position on Facebook and Instagram to deny TikTok a paid-acquisition channel across seven countries. TikTok still reaches 200M+ US users directly but loses Meta's ad ecosystem for recruiting creators and new users — and the ban arrives alongside Meta's parallel push to impose its own teen-safety standards on TikTok and YouTube.
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