Australia banned vape ads more than two years ago – so why are they still all over social media?
Despite Australia's ban on vape ads, illegal sellers promote nicotine products on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube, prompting calls for platform-level enforcement.Summary
Australia introduced strict anti-vaping laws in 2024 that banned the advertising of vapes across all media, including social media. Despite this, Guardian Australia found a network of accounts on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube promoting illegal nicotine vape products, often using similar visuals, editing techniques and sometimes AI‑generated content, with some posts boosted as paid advertising. The Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) reported removing over 8,500 unlawful vape ads and issuing fines exceeding $1.5 million between January 2024 and June 2026. Public health researcher Becky Freeman criticized the blatant nature of the posts and urged enforcement at the platform level, arguing that platforms should be fined for allowing the content. TikTok, Instagram and YouTube said the identified material violated their policies, that they had removed the offending accounts and encouraged users to report violations.
(Source：The Guardian)
