Meta still refuses to own up to Instagram and Facebook mass ban wave

It’s been a rough ride for many Instagram and Facebook users lately. I’ve been following this story closely, and it feels like Meta is playing a game of peek-a-boo with the truth about the recent widespread account suspensions. Despite a chorus of complaints, lost memories, and crippled businesses, the social media giant seems intent on downplaying the sheer scale of the problem.

Apart from the ban wave that I’ve been tracking for close to a month, earlier this week, I noticed yet another big wave of reports from Instagram users who were locked out of their accounts. Many users noticed that they weren’t able to use their profiles after they changed their passwords. So this situation added to the already growing frustration from users whose accounts have been suspended for several weeks. 

The ban wave has really wrecked many personal memories and some businesses lost out on thousands of dollars, as I highlighted earlier. Imagine waking up to find your entire digital life, your memories, your business connections, just gone. That’s the reality for countless people right now.

What’s particularly frustrating is Meta’s public stance. I found a recent report by the BBC that suggests Meta is admitting to wrongly suspending Facebook Groups, but they’re still denying a wider problem across their platforms. They call it a “technical error” with Facebook Groups, which, okay, fine, but what about all the individual Instagram and Facebook accounts that have been nuked? They claim they haven’t seen “evidence of a significant increase in incorrect enforcement of its rules.” This just doesn’t sit right when you look at the sheer volume of user complaints out there.

Funnily enough, I stumbled upon an internal Meta support screenshot, shared on Reddit, where a Meta representative explicitly stated, “We flagged accounts for not following our terms and conditions and this is caused by our AI technology. The good thing is that sometimes, our actions may be subject to review and correction. Which is happening now.” This directly contradicts their public denial of a “wider issue.” It makes you wonder how much of what they say publicly is just damage control.

People are of course furious. Petitions were signed, and some users are even pursuing legal action, uniting against these mass account bans. The Change.org petition that we highlighted now has over twenty-two thousand signatures in just a few weeks. This isn’t just a handful of disgruntled users; this is a significant movement.

A few days ago I also highlighted a TikTok video by a former Meta employee who came out saying that Meta doesn’t care about its users and that people should stop using Meta platforms. It’s hard not to connect the dots when you see how this whole situation has unfolded. Users are reporting being banned for everything from “dangerous organizations” to “child sexual exploitation,” often without any clear reason or human review. The reliance on AI for content moderation is a constant source of frustration.

There was a brief moment of hope when people were highlighting a notice on the Instagram help page for disabled accounts, suggesting they were investigating an issue. But it seems that notice might have been there for a long time and unrelated to the mass bans, so no real relief there.

Even big names are getting swept up in this. A recent thread on Reddit suggests a prominent Dominican YouTuber with millions of followers, Santiago Matias (Alofoke), just got banned. If someone with that kind of reach and connections can get arbitrarily banned, what hope do regular users have? People are hoping he’ll use his platform to speak out for everyone.

It’s a frustrating cycle. Meta issues a vague statement, users express outrage, and then it goes quiet again, all while people remain locked out of their accounts. They claim they use a “combination of people and technology” to enforce policies, but it feels like the “technology” is making too many mistakes and the “people” are nowhere to be found when you need help. Until Meta truly owns up to the widespread nature of these bans and offers a clear path to resolution, the distrust will only continue to grow.

Featured image generated using Grok AI