'There is a problem': Facebook and Instagram users complain of account bans

Facebook and Instagram users have been contacting the BBC complaining about having their accounts arbitrarily banned, and struggling to get them reinstated.

Last week Meta – which owns the platforms – acknowledged a “technical error” which it said was causing the wrongful suspension of some Facebook Groups.

Since then, people who use what is the world’s biggest social media company have been getting in touch with the BBC to describe the impact it is having on them – and say the problem goes much wider than Meta has indicated.

Some say they have been shut out of pages that are key to their working lives, while others highlight the digital connections to loved ones that have been cut.

There is also frustration that – despite Meta saying it is fixing the problem – there is often no human to speak to about an issue they suspect is caused by moderation decisions powered by artificial intelligence (AI).

They have also described how Instagram accounts have been affected, despite Meta saying it does not have evidence of a problem on its platforms more widely.

More than 25,000 people have signed a petition in the last few weeks which says the problem is being experienced across Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.

Thousands of people are in Reddit forums dedicated to the subject, many users are posting on social media about being banned by Meta, and some say they plan on taking a class action lawsuit against the social media giant.

Here’s what people have told the BBC about what it means to them to be locked out of their social media accounts.

The online petition about this issue was started by Brittany Watson, a 32-year-old from Ontario, in Canada.

She decided to act after her Facebook account was disabled for nine days in May before it was reinstated. She claims her page was cancelled over “account integrity“, and Meta has not provided her with any answers as to why.

“Facebook wasn’t just an app for me,” she told BBC News. “It was where I kept years of memories, connected with family and friends, followed pages that brought me joy, and found support communities for mental health.”

When her account was banned, Brittany said she felt “ashamed, embarrassed and anxiety-stricken”.

“The weight of feeling exiled from everyone takes a pretty strong hold on you,” she added.

She quickly discovered she wasn’t the only one affected – thousands have signed the petition she started.

“There is a problem – it is personal accounts, it is business accounts, Facebook pages and Groups. I can’t believe they [Meta] are only saying it is just Groups.”

Meta has told BBC News that it takes action on accounts that violate our policies, and “people can appeal if they think we’ve made a mistake”.

It has also outlined in detail how it moderates accounts using a combination of people and technology to find and remove accounts that broke its rules.

It says it is not aware of a spike in erroneous account suspension.

Another user who recently lost access to his Facebook account is John Dale, a former journalist who runs a local news group in west London with over 5,000 members.

His account was first suspended on 30 May for breaking community standards, and the page he administers has briefly come back twice since then.

He has no idea why.

As he was the only administrator of the group, he currently cannot approve new posts. Additionally, his own posts have been removed from the group.

“It’s frozen in time, [while] quite a lot of material has been deleted,” he told BBC News.

Mr Dale is appealing his suspension, but if he loses his appeal his account will be permanently deleted. He says he has received limited information on why he was banned.

“There is no customer service,” he said.

Michelle DeMelo, who is also from Canada, says she has suffered financially since her Facebook and Instagram accounts were suspended in the middle of June.

They were reinstated on Wednesday, a day after the BBC contacted Meta about her case.

She runs several pages, with some associated with her businesses in digital marketing, and also uses Facebook Marketplace to buy and sell goods.

All her accounts are linked, so when her personal Instagram page was suspended for “violating the terms” of a Meta policy, it triggered all of her pages to be suspended.

“My income’s taken a huge hit in the past couple of weeks,” she told BBC News from her home in Niagara Falls.

“People think I blocked them or think something happened to me.”

Michelle can’t think of anything which triggered the suspension, and is worried about the reputational hit as some of her clients were left unable to contact her.

She told the BBC she was relieved that after “weeks of complete confusion and uncertainty” her accounts had now been abruptly restored.

But she said the episode had been very badly handled.

“It’s insulting that a company as powerful as Meta, built by its users, offers no real human support or clear pathways for resolution in these situations.”

Another person left frustrated at Meta’s moderation policies and its appeal process is Sam Tall, a 21-year-old from Bournemouth.

He told BBC News that he discovered his Instagram page was suspended last week for breaching “community standards”.

He decided to appeal, and it was rejected two minutes later – making Sam suspect the process was entirely handled by AI.

“There is absolutely no way that was seen by a human,” he told BBC News.

“All the memories, all my friends who I can no longer talk to because I don’t have them on any other platform – gone”.

As his Facebook account was linked, that was removed too.

“No explanation. I’m a bit baffled, to be honest.”

Sam says it is time for some serious action from Meta – and not just for his sake.

“If I know it is quite a few people, then there is a chance of Meta waking up and realising ‘oh, this actually is an issue – let’s reinstate them all.'”