Meta bans TikTok parent ByteDance from advertising in seven countries, including the US

The ban

Meta has banned advertising from ByteDance, the Chinese parent company of TikTok, in the United States and six other countries: Canada, Egypt, Indonesia, Japan, Thailand and Vietnam. The ban took effect on Thursday and restricts ads and paid marketing messages from ByteDance, along with third-party ads that link to TikTok or other ByteDance apps in those markets. According to The Next Web, the restriction applies to ads on Facebook and Instagram. The ban does not stop people from using TikTok itself. TikTok and ByteDance did not respond to Reuters' requests for comment. Wnp.pl, citing Reuters, describes TikTok as one of Meta's most dangerous competitors in terms of user engagement, creators and advertising revenue.

Meta's explanation

Meta confirmed the restriction and defended it as ordinary commercial practice. In a statement to The Verge, Meta spokesperson Christopher Sgro said:

We don't have to run ads from a competitor whose goal is to pull people off our apps. Declining promotional services to a competitor is a normal business practice across industries. We will continue to compete on product quality and user experience.

The statement presents the decision as a refusal to promote a rival, not as a safety measure. Meta said it would keep competing on the quality of its products and the experience of its users. The restriction also covers outside advertisers whose campaigns send people to TikTok, which widens its effect beyond Meta's own ad sales.

The child safety backdrop

The dispute grows out of child safety rules. In August, Meta agreed to a settlement with US states that requires daily and night-time limits for young users on Facebook and Instagram, along with tighter barriers to content meant for older audiences. Sources give different amounts for the settlement: The Verge reports $17 billion, while The Next Web, Engadget and wnp.pl cite $18 billion. According to The Next Web, part of the payout depends on rivals adopting similar measures. Meta has since urged TikTok and YouTube to accept the same terms, and it ran an ad campaign calling on them to do so, which TikTok reportedly declined to share on its platform.

TikTok's response

TikTok rejected Meta's ads in September, saying they broke its rules on political content. Later that month TikTok reached a settlement with Alabama, agreeing to usage limits and stronger age checks. It still faces other state cases, including a New York lawsuit over teen safety. TikTok has stopped allowing users to include links that "open or log you into other social media apps", according to its support page, although profiles can still link to rival websites. Engadget also cites TikTok's own ban of Instagram and Facebook profile links.

Ownership and regulatory pressure

TikTok's US business now runs through a joint venture that is majority-owned by US-based companies, and ByteDance holds 19.9% of it, according to The Next Web. Engadget describes the owners as a consortium of US and UAE investors, including Larry Ellison's Oracle. The app has more than 200 million US users. Engadget reports that European regulators wrote this summer that TikTok had not done enough to ensure minors' safety and could impose a fine of up to six percent of the platform's annual revenue. TikTok has so far said very little on the issue, according to Engadget.