WhatsApp Accounts Placed “Under Review” for 24 Hours as Meta Works to Fix Mistaken Bans
Thousands of WhatsApp users were suddenly locked out on Monday after their accounts were flagged for a 24-hour review. Meta has restored access but has not explained what triggered the mass flagging.
The lockouts hit without warning, cutting users off from conversations and, for some, disrupting their workday. Posts on social media showed many users reporting the same error within a short period.
Several said the disruption interfered with their jobs because they rely on WhatsApp for daily communication. Given WhatsApp’s more than 3 billion monthly active users worldwide, even a narrow, short-lived glitch is enough to touch a large number of people simultaneously.
What Meta Has Said About the Cause
Meta attributed the issue to its automated moderation systems mistakenly flagging legitimate accounts.
A company spokesperson told TechCrunch that WhatsApp continually bans abusive accounts to protect other users, adding that when the system gets it wrong, the goal is to fix it as quickly as possible and get people back to chatting.
Gulf News reported an identical explanation, citing a WhatsApp spokesperson, confirming the flagging traced back to the platform’s automated ban-enforcement systems, just like Reddit, rather than a broader technical outage affecting the app more generally.
Neither Meta nor WhatsApp explained what triggered the mass flagging or how many users were affected.
What Affected Users Can Do While Waiting
For locked-out users, the review process cannot be sped up.
WhatsApp reviews one phone number per appeal, doesnt matter even if you have a premium subscription, and if the app does not show a “Request review” option, the restriction is final, per Gulf News.
Users can check their status simply by reopening the app, since contacting WhatsApp directly outside the built-in review flow doesn’t accelerate a decision, and third-party services claiming to lift bans have no actual ability to do so.
Restrictions of this kind typically end automatically once the 24-hour window closes, with backups and full chat history becoming accessible again only after an account is confirmed restored.
WhatsApp says common reasons for account restrictions include suspected spam, bulk messaging, and unofficial app versions, though it has not confirmed whether any of these caused Monday’s lockouts.
Source: WhatsApp says it is fixing an issue that disabled several accounts
