TikTok reportedly declined to run ads from Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta urging the company and fellow social media rival YouTube to join the Instagram parent’s landmark child safety settlement.
Meta’s historic $18 billion settlement with a coalition of state attorneys general came with some bizarre terms. Meta is initially only required to pay 70% of the money, or $12.7 billion. It pays the remaining $5.3 billion if TikTok and YouTube agree to cough up $5.3 billion total themselves, along with imposing measures like a one-hour daily time limit on teens.
The rejected video ad featured a voiceover pressuring TikTok and YouTube to take action, Axios reported, citing sources familiar with the matter. TikTok informed Meta on Wednesday that it wouldn’t run the ads because they violate its policy against advertising with “political content.”
“To truly empower parents and keep teens safe across the apps they use the most, TikTok and YouTube need to step up and meet the standard we’ve set with state attorneys general,” Meta said in a statement on the nixed ads.
“While it’s disappointing that they’ve chosen not to engage, we remain hopeful that they’ll do the right thing,” Meta added.
So far, YouTube and TikTok have remained silent in public about Meta’s pressure campaign, which began almost immediately after the settlement terms were announced on Aug. 26.
That day, Meta published an open letter asserting that the deal would only “be truly effective if we work with our peers — TikTok and YouTube — to put the same measures in place.”
Neither TikTok nor Google were defendants in the federal case that resulted in the settlement – though some of the attorneys general involved the lawsuit have demanded that they agree to similar guardrails or face action.
Officials from TikTok and Google were set to appear at an event for the Department of Health and Human Services last week centered on screen time and other online safety issues, according to a copy of the agenda obtained by The Post.
However, both companies ultimately pulled out of the event.
Separately, the House Select Committee on China said TikTok “reneged on its commitment” to participate in a September roundtable event. Bloomberg was first to report on TikTok’s decision not to join the event.
Rep. John Moolenaar (R-Mich.), the committee chair, said in a statement that TikTok was “refusing to appear citing its own desire to avoid broader scrutiny of its child safety practices.”
TikTok reps did not return The Post’s request for comment.