New Australian laws banning vaping ads ‘toothless’ without social media enforcement, experts say

Researchers find self-regulation by companies like Meta or TikTok ‘doesn’t work’

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The scale of the promotion of vapes and e-cigarettes online means that new laws being introduced to ban vaping ads on social media may be a “toothless exercise” without additional policy reforms, health experts have said.

Most e-cigarette posts on TikTok and Instagram portray vape use positively and many posts breach the platforms’ content policies, research from Prof Jonine Jancey and her colleagues found.

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