Meta Bans ByteDance Ads Across Egypt, US and Other Markets
Meta has banned advertising linked to ByteDance, the owner of TikTok, across its platforms in Egypt, the United States and several other countries, effective Thursday, October 8, 2026, amid intensifying competition among major social media companies.
The restrictions cover ByteDance’s paid advertisements and marketing messages, as well as third-party ads containing links that direct users to TikTok.
Christopher Sgro, a Meta spokesperson, told The Verge that the company is not obligated to run advertisements for a competitor seeking to draw users away from its platforms. He described refusing to provide promotional services to rivals as a normal business practice across industries.
Meta will continue competing by improving its products and enhancing the user experience, Sgro added.
The decision follows Meta’s approval, months earlier, of a major settlement related to child safety. According to the report, the agreement included financial commitments valued at $17 billion and additional restrictions on teenagers.
Since then, Meta has called on TikTok and YouTube to adopt comparable safeguards and launched an advertising campaign promoting that approach. TikTok, however, refused to allow the campaign to run on its platform, according to the report.
Separately, TikTok has stopped allowing users to add links that open other social media applications or enable users to sign in to them, according to the platform’s support page.
The advertising ban also applies in Canada, Indonesia, Japan, Thailand and Vietnam, extending the restrictions on ByteDance-related promotional campaigns across multiple markets.
Although TikTok’s US operations are currently under a joint venture in which American companies hold the majority stake, ByteDance remains a major shareholder in the venture.
