How Meta Tried To Lure TikTok Users to Instagram

It was too good an opportunity to ignore Meta: January 19, TikTok, one of it The biggest social media competitorA while was set to go dark across the United States New National Security Act has been implemented. In the days and weeks leading up to the ban, as millions of Americans scrambled to find a viable alternative to TikTok, Meta found ways to promote Instagram and Facebook as the answer. The tech giant has rolled out various design changes, rolled out new features and run ads that all position its platforms—and especially its video product, Reels—as a direct competitor to TikTok.

There is Instagram Scale back its in-app shopping initiative in recent years, but on Friday, Meta showed off a new feature that appears to be ripped straight from tiktok shopTikTok is a hugely successful ecommerce platform. A Promotional videoTwo shopping creators working for Meta explained how influencers can now “more prominently showcase” the products they’re marketing on Reel. Instead of putting an Amazon or Walmart link in the comments, they can add a banner instructing viewers to click on the item below their video—just like how it works on TikTok Shop.

Some of Meta’s other efforts were well-directed. Just before TikTok off work For about 14 hours on Saturday, some people reported that sponsored posts for Instagram were among the last things they saw on the platform. “Surprisingly, as TikTok goes down tonight, Meta is flooding my FYP with Instagram ads,” one person said in a Bluesky post, referring to TikTok’s AI-powered For You page feed. “I saw an Instagram ad in my last hour of TikTok,” another said in the thread.

TikTok’s Ad Library, a transparency tool that allows anyone to search what paid campaigns are running on the platform, shows that meta has run dozen Sponsored videos about Instagram and Reel in January were watched by millions of users collectively But the tool only includes data from a select number of countries — mostly in Europe — and doesn’t cover what ads TikTok users in the U.S. have seen. Meta did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

On Facebook, several people reported seeing a different promotion in their news feed last week, encouraging them to link their TikTok accounts to their Facebook pages. “Build your social presence across the app by showing your TikTok profile link and the number of followers on your Facebook page,” one version of the message said.

Given the timing, “It feels a bit 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 prompt appears to be attached to a characteristics Meta launched last month allowing users to display their YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram handles and follower count on Facebook. However, the banner that people have seen in recent days only mentions TikTok by name. The feature makes it easier for followers of creators on other platforms to find and follow them on Facebook.