The ads, slated to run in the Tame Apple Press better known as  the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post. It has the headline "We're standing up to Apple for small businesses everywhere."

The advert moans about upcoming changes to Apple's iOS 14 operating system that will curb the ability of companies like Facebook to gather data about mobile users and ply them with advertising.

Facebook previously told investors that Apple's changes, scheduled to go live early next year, will lead to significant headwinds because most of its advertisers are small businesses.

Apple has pushed back, accusing Facebook in November of showing a "disregard for user privacy".

"While limiting how personalised ads can be used does impact larger companies like us, these changes will be devastating to small businesses", Facebook claims.

The social giant, citing its own data, says ads that disregard personalised targeting generate 60 percent fewer sales than ads that do target consumers. The newspaper ads are the latest in what has become a vicious and public battle between two of the world's most valuable companies.

Facebook was joined by a group of major US news publishers that have joined the Coalition for App Fairness (CAF), the advocacy group pushing for increased regulation over app stores and fair treatment for all developers.

The publisher trade association now joining CAF is Digital Content Next, a representative for the AP, The New York Times, NPR, ESPN, Vox, The Washington Post, Meredith, Bloomberg, NBCU, The Financial Times, and many others. The organization is now the 50th member for CAF and the first to represent the news and media business in the U.S. From a report:

It joins other media organizations who are already CAF members, including the European Publishers Council, News Media Europe, GESTE, and Schibsted, as well as CAF founding members like Basecamp, Blix, Blockchain.com, Deezer, Epic Games, Match Group, Prepear, Protonmail, Skydemon, Spotify, and Tile, plus a growing number of smaller developers. DCN's members, combined, reach an audience over over 223 million unique visitors and 100 percent of the US online population, it says. Its publishers provide access to content on a subscription-based model that, according to its statements, Apple "severely impacts" by serving as an intermediary.