Instagram and YouTube prepare to benefit from TikTok ban

On Wednesday afternoon, Meta executives held a question-and-answer session with some of its employees about the state of American politics.

Alex Schultz, the chief marketing officer, fielded questions about Meta’s embrace of the new Trump administration and what he said was the company’s precarious position overseas, according to two attendees. He also said Meta was paying close attention to the plight of one of its biggest competitors: TikTok.

Depending on what happened to TikTok, which is owned by Chinese company ByteDance and faces a ban in the United States, Meta had to prepare for what could be a seismic shift in the way Americans use social media , said Mr. Schultz. Meta had the potential to benefit, but he said the company needed to be ready.

Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Threads, is particularly interested in the outcome. The Silicon Valley giant — along with Google’s YouTube and other social media apps — could benefit from a law banning TikTok in the United States taking effect on Sunday, leaving all 170 million monthly users Americans from TikTok dry. The Supreme Court is expected to rule soon on the constitutionality of the federal law in question.

Privately, Meta has sent teams to prepare to welcome as many so-called TikTok refugees as possible, three people familiar with the project said. That involves doing more to court popular TikTok influencers and possibly further tweaking Instagram to make certain features more familiar to heavy TikTok users, they said. Instagram offers Reels, a short-form video product that competes with TikTok.

“Instagram is a natural home” for TikTok creators and users, said Richard Kramer, a financial analyst at Arete Research. “Like TikTok, the app offers online shopping and strong user engagement.”