Meta has blocked advertising from TikTok on its platforms, confirming a move that widens the rift between the two social media rivals. A company spokesperson, Chris Sgro, told Bloomberg that refusing to carry promotions from a competitor that aims to draw users away from Meta's apps is an ordinary way of doing business. The ban covers Meta's own properties and applies to outside advertisers running campaigns tied to TikTok.
The restriction took effect on Thursday and covers the United States along with Canada, Egypt, Indonesia, Japan, Thailand and Vietnam, according to Meta. It extends beyond TikTok itself to third-party advertisers handling TikTok-linked campaigns in those markets. Meta placed the ban on ads and marketing from TikTok's US minority owner, China's ByteDance.
The decision follows moves by TikTok, which has blocked Instagram and Facebook profile links on its service. Meta has also run advertising that presses TikTok and other social media companies to match its safety features for minors. Those competing actions form the backdrop to the advertising block.
Meta's push on child safety came after it agreed in August to an $18 billion settlement with US states, an agreement that also required it to add child safety features to Facebook and Instagram. Legal experts said the deal could push the company's rivals, especially TikTok and YouTube, to redesign their own apps. The pressure reaches beyond corporate rivals to regulators.
This summer, European regulators concluded that TikTok had not done enough to protect minors and said they could fine the platform as much as six percent of its annual revenue. That leaves TikTok and YouTube facing demands from both government regulators and Meta to adopt Meta's approach to child safety. Meta recently bought ads in major newspapers calling for similar steps from its competitors, and it has criticized TikTok for missing several US government meetings on screen time and child safety.
TikTok, now owned by a group of US and UAE investors that includes Larry Ellison's Oracle, has said little about the dispute so far. The advertising ban affects TikTok's marketing reach in the US and six other countries, while the child safety standoff continues to shape how the platforms position themselves with regulators and users.
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