Meta began blocking advertisements and paid marketing messages from ByteDance on October 8, with the restriction taking effect immediately across the US, Canada, Egypt, Indonesia, Japan, Thailand and Vietnam.
The policy reaches beyond ByteDance’s own advertising. Meta will also bar third-party advertisers whose campaigns link to TikTok or other ByteDance properties in those markets.
ByteDance is the Beijing-based parent company of TikTok. A Meta company spokesperson announced the ban on Thursday, after Bloomberg News first reported it earlier that day.
Meta presented the decision as a matter of commercial discretion. Refusing promotional services to a competitor was normal business practice, it said. “We don't have to run ads from a competitor whose goal is to pull people off our apps,” Meta stated.
TikTok and ByteDance did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment.
The ban comes after Meta reached an US$18 billion settlement with 48 US states in August 2026 over child safety claims. The agreement requires new safety features for minors on Instagram and Facebook, and commits Meta to daily usage limits and restrictions on children’s nighttime use of both services.
Since that settlement, Meta has pressed TikTok and YouTube to make similar child-safety changes. TikTok reached a settlement with Alabama in September requiring new usage limits and stronger age-verification measures for users in the state.
ByteDance still oversees parts of TikTok’s US operations. TikTok operates there as a majority American-owned joint venture following a deal aimed at safeguarding US user data, and has more than 200 million users in the US.
The immediate effect is to close off Meta’s advertising services to ByteDance and to advertisers directing users towards its properties in the seven markets. The financial effect, the campaigns most affected and the duration of the policy remain unclear.
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