Facebook and Instagram parent Meta has banned advertisements by ByteDance, the popular short-form video platform’s Chinese parent, on its platforms in the United States and a few other countries.
The move marks another chapter of escalation in the long-running rivalry between Meta and ByteDance, with TikTok emerging as one of Meta’s most formidable competitors for user engagement, creators, and advertising dollars.
“Meta’s ban takes effect immediately in the US, Canada, Egypt, Indonesia, Japan, Thailand, and Vietnam and extends to third-party advertisers running campaigns that link to TikTok and other ByteDance properties in those countries,” the social media conglomerate said.
“We don’t have to run ads from a competitor whose goal is to pull people off our apps,” Meta said.
“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 Mark Zuckerberg-led platform said.
As per TikTok’s website, it does not support links that open or log users into other social media apps. However, users can still add links to their profiles that direct people to those platforms’ websites.
Before taking the harsh step, Meta was reportedly urging TikTok and YouTube to follow actions it agreed to take on teen safety in August following a settlement of up to USD 18 billion with US states over alleged social media harms to children.
As part of the settlement, Meta agreed to impose daily usage limits and restrict nighttime usage by children who use Facebook and Instagram, apart from enhancing measures to prevent children from accessing age-restricted content.
TikTok, on the other hand, reached a settlement with Alabama in September that now requires the social media platform to impose new usage limits and enhance age-verification measures for users in the state, resolving claims that it endangered children and misled consumers about its safety.
TikTok operates in the world’s largest economy as a majority American-owned joint venture after a deal aimed at safeguarding US user data and averting a ban from Uncle Sam on an app used by over 200 million users in the country.