Another Meta ban wave may be locking users out of Facebook, Instagram, and Threads

Another round of Meta account bans appears to be underway, with users across Facebook, Instagram, and Threads reporting sudden suspensions that came without explanation and, in many cases, no working path to appeal.

Reports started surfacing on Reddit’s r/facebook in the last 24 hours. We noticed a large spike in reports roughly a day ago, with dozens of users reporting that both their Facebook and Instagram accounts were disabled at the same time. Initially, most reports were from users in the Philippines. But not long after, users from the US, New Zealand, Australia, and Indonesia all reported the same thing.

One thread picked up over 200 comments, many of which are from people basically saying “me too”, in just 22 hours. Even so, this is likely only a drop in the bucket since many other affected users probably aren’t even on Reddit.

Much like the last time, impacted accounts have seemingly lost everything. One user noted losing 13 years of memories, with no appeal button, and a help center that just loops you back to itself.

A content strategist named Joseph Rooks posted on X saying his Facebook, Instagram, and Threads accounts were all disabled without notice on March 27. He has already filed a complaint with the Washington state Attorney General’s Consumer Protection Division and says he is preparing a formal demand letter to Meta.

Apart from this, a few others like @Sarge4270 and @America4J3sus have posted about the problem on X.

The appeal problem keeps coming up. Many users say the disabled account screen mentions an appeal option, but every link requires logging in with the suspended account, which just throws an error. It goes nowhere. Some users who did manage to reach Meta’s live support via Meta Verified were told the decision is final, with no explanation of what they actually did wrong.

One person mentioned that a group formed on Viber for affected users in the Philippines hit its 250-member limit almost immediately. That gives some sense of how fast this is moving.

I have been keeping tabs on this ban wave for roughly a year now, and the current surge looks a lot like what I covered over on our sister site TechIssuesToday, including how the wave hit regular users and small businesses and how the backlash kept growing. At one point, Meta even confirmed “excessive account bans” tied to a global CSE-related enforcement push, which was one of the rare moments the company came close to acknowledging the scale of the problem.

Here on PiunikaWeb, I documented the situation in detail last year, covering what affected users actually tried: checking Meta’s stated reason, filing an appeal quickly, and using Meta Verified to reach a human agent. The Meta Verified route remains one of the more reliable workarounds, though paying for a subscription to fix a ban you did not earn is definitely infuriating. Most recently, actress Ming-Na Wen ran into a similar wall when Facebook blocked her from setting up a public account, likely due to its AI misfiring.

Meta has not commented on the current spike. And if you take into account Meta’s silence regarding the previous mass ban wave, you shouldn’t be surprised if Meta remains quiet again.

Over 61,000 people have signed a petition asking Meta to fix its AI moderation and restore wrongfully disabled accounts. The company has not announced any changes. The reports, for now, keep coming in.

Featured image generated with AI

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