Meta Apologizes for Unexpected Account Suspensions on Threads and IG, Most Accounts Now Restored

(CNA Reporter Wu Chia-hao, Taipei, 18th) Meta's social platforms, including Threads, Instagram, and Facebook, have recently seen a wave of unexpected account suspensions. Meta issued a statement today explaining that a bug in the system caused affected accounts to be improperly subjected to the age verification process. Meta has identified the problem and completed the fix, and the vast majority of affected accounts have now been restored to normal use.

Meta stated, "We deeply apologize for the inconvenience this error may have caused," and emphasized that measures have been taken to prevent similar issues from happening again.

The cause of this incident was a technical error in Meta's age verification system, which resulted in some accounts being incorrectly flagged as under 13 years of age, temporarily restricting the usage rights of these affected accounts. This issue impacted accounts in Taiwan and several other countries or regions.

During the initial phase of the fix, some affected accounts were asked to upload identification documents to complete the age verification process. Meta has since improved the related procedures. Currently, for the vast majority of affected accounts, if Meta confirms the user is 13 years of age or older, access has been automatically restored starting from June 17. Users can resume normal use of their accounts directly without needing to complete identity verification.

If an account is deemed to still require the age verification process, the user can restore account access simply by initiating the age verification themselves and confirming they are 13 or older.