Since 8 October, Meta has refused ads that send people to TikTok in seven countries. Egypt is the only African market on the list. The others are the United States, Canada, Indonesia, Japan, Thailand and Vietnam.
The ban covers ads bought directly by ByteDance, TikTok’s owner, and campaigns run by anyone else that point users towards TikTok or another ByteDance app. Meta calls it ordinary business practice. TikTok and ByteDance hadn’t given a detailed response at the time of writing.
Why does this matter if you don’t work in Egypt? Because it changes how cross platform campaigns get built.
Plenty of Egyptian brands and creators use Instagram to grow their TikTok following. “Watch the full video on TikTok” in an Instagram ad is a common move. In Egypt that’s now off the table. Media buyers running creator campaigns will need to rethink, and the cost will land on creators who relied on Instagram ads to grow a TikTok audience.
The bigger worry is what comes next. Seven markets is a test. If Meta likes the results, there’s nothing stopping it adding Nigeria, Kenya or South Africa, the three largest digital ad markets on the continent. Brands with all their eggs in one platform basket should take note.
Our advice: keep your own channels strong. An email list, a WhatsApp community, a website you control. Platforms will keep fighting each other, and you don’t want your customers stuck in the middle.
