Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, announced on the 8th that it has banned TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, from running advertisements on Meta’s platforms in the United States and a handful of other countries. This move marks a further escalation in the long-standing rivalry between Meta and ByteDance.
According to Reuters, ByteDance’s short-video platform, TikTok, has emerged as one of Meta’s most formidable competitors, with the two companies vying fiercely for user attention, content creators, and advertising revenue.
Meta stated that the ban takes effect immediately in the United States, Canada, Egypt, Indonesia, Japan, Thailand, and Vietnam.
The ban also extends to third-party advertisers; any advertising campaigns running in the aforementioned countries that include links to TikTok or other ByteDance platforms are subject to the restriction.
Meta stated, “There is no need for us to run ads for a competitor that seeks to draw users away from our apps… Refusing to provide promotional services to a competitor is standard business practice across industries. We will continue to compete based on product quality and user experience.”
TikTok and ByteDance have not yet responded to requests for comment.
According to TikTok’s official website, the platform does not support direct links that open or log users into other social media apps. However, users can still add links to their profiles to direct visitors to the websites of those platforms.
Meta has consistently called on TikTok and YouTube to take measures to better protect the safety of teenage users. In August of this year, Meta reached an $18 billion settlement with multiple U.S. states regarding lawsuits over social media-related harm to children, agreeing to implement a series of protective measures.
Also in August, Meta agreed to set daily time limits and restrict nighttime usage for children on Facebook and Instagram, as well as to strengthen safeguards preventing children from accessing age-restricted content.
TikTok has not publicly responded to Meta’s initiatives. However, in September, TikTok reached a settlement with the U.S. state of Alabama, pledging to implement new time limits for local users and enhance measures such as age verification.