For the last few hours, several people across social media have reported that their WhatsApp accounts have been blocked and put “under review” by Meta. The company, in response to TechCrunch’s inquiries about the matter, said that it is working on restoring access to these accounts.
According to posts from those impacted on X and Threads, many were suddenly unable to use their accounts. When they tried to access their accounts, WhatsApp displayed a screen that said, “Your account activity and device info is being checked to make sure it follows our Terms of Service. We’ll notify you of the result typically within 24 hours.”
Meta’s popular chat app has more than 3 billion monthly active users across the world, making even a proportionally small disruption one that can impact thousands of users.
Meta acknowledged the issue and told TechCrunch the company is working on resolving it. However, it didn’t specify if users in specific regions were impacted, or what caused the problem.
“We are always working to stay ahead of those trying to abuse our service and ban accounts to help keep other users safe. Sometimes we get this wrong, and if we do, we try to fix it as quickly as possible to get people back to chatting. We’ve taken action to restore affected accounts,” a company spokesperson said.
The company didn’t provide details around what caused a bunch of accounts to go under review.