Meta is under fire after a wave of mass bans affecting Instagram and Facebook users alike now appears to have hit Facebook Groups as well. According to complaints and organised efforts on sites like Reddit to share information, thousands of groups across the US and abroad have been suspended, reports Techcrunch.

When reached for comment by the news site, Meta spokesperson Andy Stone confirmed the company was aware of the issue and was working to correct it.

“We’re aware of a technical error that impacted some Facebook Groups. We’re fixing things now,” he told TechCrunch in an emailed statement.

The reason for the mass bans is not yet known, though many suspect that faulty AI-based moderation could be to blame.
Based on information shared by affected users, many of the suspended Facebook groups aren’t the kind that would normally face moderation concerns, as they focus on fairly innocuous content like savings tips or deals, parenting support, groups for dog or cat owners, gaming groups, Pokémon groups, groups for mechanical keyboard enthusiasts, and more.

Facebook Group admins report receiving vague violation notices related to things like “terrorism-related” content or nudity, which they insist their groups haven’t posted.

While some of the affected groups are smaller, many are large, with tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, or even millions of users.

Those who have organised to share tips about the issue are advising others not to appeal their group’s ban, but rather to wait a few days to see if the suspension is automatically reversed when the bug is fixed.

Currently, Reddit’s Facebook community (r/facebook) is filled with posts from group admins and users who are angry about the recent purge. Some report that all the groups they run have been removed at once. Some are incredulous about the supposed violations — like a group for bird photos with just under a million users getting flagged for nudity.

Others claim that their groups were already well-moderated against spam — like a family-friendly Pokémon group with nearly 200,000 members, which received a violation notice that their title referenced “dangerous organisations,” or an interior design group that served millions, which received the same violation.

At least some Facebook Group admins who pay for Meta’s Verified subscription, which includes priority customer support, have been able to get help. Others, however, report that their groups have been suspended or fully deleted.

It’s unclear whether the problem is related to the recent wave of bans impacting Meta users as individuals, but this seems to be a growing problem across social networks.

In addition to Facebook and Instagram, social networks like Pinterest and Tumblr have also faced complaints about mass suspensions in recent weeks, leading users to suspect that AI-automated moderation efforts are to blame.

Pinterest at least admitted to its mistake, saying the mass bans were due to an internal error, but it denied that AI was the issue. Tumblr said its issues were tied to tests of a new content-filtering system but did not clarify whether that system involved AI.

When asked last week about the Instagram bans, Meta declined to comment. Users are now circulating a petition that has garnered more than 12,380 signatures so far, asking Meta to address the problem. Others, including those whose businesses were affected, are pursuing legal action.

Meta has still not shared what’s causing the issue with either individual accounts or groups.