It was an opportunity too good for Meta to ignore: On January 19, TikTok, one of its biggest social media rivals, was set to disappear across the United States as a novel national security law went into effect. In the days and weeks before the ban, as millions of Americans searched for a suitable alternative to TikTok, Meta found ways to promote Instagram and Facebook as the answer. The tech giant made a slew of design tweaks, introduced novel features, and ran ads that positioned its platforms – and especially its Reels video product – as direct competition to TikTok.
Instagram has reduced its in-app shopping initiatives in recent years, but on Friday Meta unveiled a novel feature that appears to be taken directly from TikTok Shop, TikTok’s wildly successful e-commerce platform. In promotional videotwo shopping creators working for Meta explained how influencers can now “give more exposure” to the products they promote on Reels. Instead of including a link to Amazon or Walmart in the comments, they can add a banner encouraging viewers to click on the item at the bottom of their videos — just like it works on the TikTok store.
Some of Meta’s other efforts were equally deliberate. Just before TikTok went down for about 14 hours on Saturday, some people reported that one of the last things they saw on the platform were sponsored posts on Instagram. “No wonder TikTok is down tonight and Meta is flooding my FYP with Instagram ads,” one person said in Bluesky’s post, referring to the AI-powered TikTok for You website. “In the last hour of using TikTok, I saw ads on Instagram,” another person said on Threads.
TikTok’s ad library, a transparency tool that allows anyone to see what paid campaigns are running on the platform, shows that Meta dozens sponsored videos on Instagram and Reels in January, which were collectively viewed by millions of users. However, the tool only covers data from a select number of countries – mainly Europe – and does not include ads that TikTok users may have seen in the United States. Meta did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
On Facebook, many people reported that another promotion appeared on their news feeds last week, encouraging them to link their TikTok accounts to their Facebook Pages. “Build your social media presence on apps by showing your TikTok profile link and follower count on your Facebook page,” one version of the message reads.
Given the timing, “it seems a little passive-aggressive,” one user wrote on X along with a screenshot of the banner. “Facebook is trolling users by suggesting we add our TikTok accounts to our Facebook pages,” another person joked.
The message appears to be connected to a function Meta launched last month and allows users to display their YouTube, TikTok and Instagram accounts and follower count on Facebook. However, the banners people saw in recent days only mentioned TikTok by name. This feature makes it easier for creators’ followers on other platforms to find and follow them on Facebook.