The accounts posted promotional content offering to sell viewers popular vape brands, in most cases directing viewers to order via private messages or encrypted messaging apps. Illustration: Victoria Hart/Guardian Design View image in fullscreen The accounts posted promotional content offering to sell viewers popular vape brands, in most cases directing viewers to order via private messages or encrypted messaging apps. Illustration: Victoria Hart/Guardian Design Health Australia banned vape ads more than two years ago – so why are they still all over social media? Posts promoting illegal products appear across TikTok, Instagram and YouTube as expert says platforms ‘aren’t doing the job they promised they would do’
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Prefer the Guardian on Google Illegal vape sellers have turned to social media to promote nicotine-filled products, with experts calling for a crackdown including stronger penalties for the platforms.
Guardian Australia has identified a network of posts across TikTok, Instagram and YouTube promoting the sale of illegal products to Australian audiences.
The accounts posted promotional content offering to sell viewers popular vape brands, distributed from “local” stock held in Australian warehouses with express shipping, often claiming delivery within days.
Read more In most cases, the accounts directed viewers to place orders via private messages or guided them to encrypted messaging apps such as WhatsApp.
There are similarities between many of the posts, including use of the same vision and editing techniques, suggesting a degree of coordination across the platforms. Some content also appeared to be AI-generated.
In some instances, content has been boosted on TikTok as paid advertising.
The Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) said it was aware of thousands of similar posts, and was taking “strong and sustained” action to remove them.
Australia has some of the world’s toughest anti-vaping laws. Introduced in 2024, the laws banned the advertising of vapes across all media platforms, including social media.
The TGA, which enforces the rules, said it “was aware of vaping goods being illegally promoted for sale through different online forums”.
Between January 2024 and June 2026, it said it had “removed over 8,500 unlawful vape advertising posts from social media and redirected more than 390 websites unlawfully advertising vaping goods”. It has also issued more than 90 infringement notices, resulting in more than $1.5m in fines.
The TGA said it “took signals of non-compliance seriously” and “worked closely with online platforms to deter and address alleged unlawful advertising”.
But despite the current laws, Prof Becky Freeman, a public health researcher at the University of Sydney, said the content was “so blatant, they’re not even bothering to hide it”.
View image in fullscreen A TikTok video shows vapes for sale. Photograph: TikTok She said the posts continued to appear because accountability sat largely with individual sellers, rather than the platforms.
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Freeman called for “enforcement at the platform level as well as the individual ad level”, adding that “these platforms aren’t doing the job that they promised they would do”.