No, TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram are not banning astrology and tarot content

• A false claim spread that TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram planned to ban astrology and tarot content.
• The claim appeared to have originated on TikTok and spread further on Twitter.

A rumor that TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook planned to ban astrology and tarot-related content on their platforms spread across social-media, but it's not true, the platforms told Insider.

The chatter appeared to have originated with a TikTok video posted on Sunday from the astrology influencer Cosmic Drugz, who has over 450,000 followers on the platform. In the video, which had over 86,000 views as of Wednesday, the creator appeared to misinterpret a recent Facebook change to targeted ads.

Cosmic Drugz did not return Insider's request for comment.

The change, which took effect January 19 but would allow existing ad campaigns to run until March, disabled some options for how advertisers could target users, according to Meta's website. Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, said it removed options it considered "redundant," "too granular," or ones that otherwise related to sensitive topics like sexual orientation, religion, and political causes.

In a previous announcement about the update, Meta said the change would bar advertisers from targeting users using keywords like "chemotherapy," "same-sex marriage," and "Catholic Church."

But in the TikTok video, the creator showed the Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok logos and said "these social media platforms are beginning to take the necessary steps in order to ban" astrology and tarot content "altogether," even though none of the platforms have made any such announcement.

A TikTok spokesperson confirmed to Insider there was "no merit to these claims." The "astrology" hashtag on the platform is booming, with over 32 billion views, the TikTok spokesperson noted. The "#tarot" has 18 billion views.

A spokesperson for Meta similarly confirmed to Insider it allowed this type of content on Facebook and Instagram unless it otherwise violated the company's Community Standards, adding there were many advertisements that targeted interests related to astrology.

The rumor spread further Tuesday, when a Twitter user asked "why" these platforms planned to ban astrology and tarot content. The tweet received over 33,000 likes and nearly 5,000 retweets as of Wednesday.

"Someone said they could also be doing this because of scamming in the spiritual community... love readings and things like that but there's scamming in every community, they just want to silence spiritualist," the Twitter user wrote in a follow-up tweet.

The rumor was first debunked on Twitter by the journalist Chris Stokel-Walker.