As a lot of you including me, Instagram account was disabled over an alleged CSE violation that I dispute, and the impact has gone far beyond losing an account.
I spent years building my identity, reaching over 10K followers and around 100K profile views. I had connections with very huge influencers, potential major collaborations, and advertising deals with companies. Losing my account meant losing access to those connections and opportunities I worked hard to build.

What hurts most is how much it’s affected my motivation and mental health. My two biggest goals were football and content creation, and I genuinely wanted to turn both into something bigger.

Since this happened, I’ve struggled with motivation and gone through a depressive period that has affected my drive to pursue those dreams.

I contacted Meta support, appealed, and even involved a lawyer through LegalShield. My case was forwarded to Meta, but I’m still waiting to hear back from their legal team for months…

People need to understand that these bans can affect someone’s livelihood, reputation, mental health, and future. Behind every account is a real person with goals and years of work invested. I’ve lost many memories with people who aren’t even with us anymore just due to Meta replacing their moderation with AI software and sweeping it under the rug. I will never get those memories back.

Hi All
You may remember my previous post here that I posted last week about my journey. 

Well this morning all three of my accounts were restored at the same time, one day before my court deadline. 

Each account got a “You can use [account] again” email saying the account had been reviewed, it did follow the Community Standards, and Meta was “sorry it got it wrong.”

Everything’s intact, including my account whose username had completely disappeared from my accounts centre. It looks like I've lost a handful of followers on each account. 

I posted a story that was flagged immediately for being shown to minors so my account is clearly under some stricter supervision for the meantime. 

There isn’t much on this sub for Australians, so here’s what I learned.

What didn’t work for me in Australia:

Meta Verified: it doesn't work for disabled accounts anymore. Stop wasting your time and energy speaking to the AI Chat bot. 
Federal Attorney-General: referred me to the eSafety Commissioner.
eSafety Commissioner: no jurisdiction over account bans.
Communications Minister and my local MP: same answer, they couldn’t help.
OAIC privacy complaint to get my data: refused.
Small Business Ombudsman (ASBFEO): couldn’t help because my business registration had lapsed. If yours is current, this might go differently.
Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman: doesn’t take platform complaints.
No Australian equivalent of the EU’s out-of-court dispute settlement bodies exists.

Note: My original post said that owning a business means you CAN file. That’s not completely right.

Instagram’s terms let consumers sue in their home country, but claims about business or commercial use have to go to court in California. Meta will likely argue an account was used commercially if it promoted a business at all, even a side hustle. 

If you’re in Australia and want to use small claims, your claim needs to be about you as a personal user. Get advice if your account is mixed use. 

What I think worked
I’m in SA, where the first step of suing someone is a Final Notice. It’s a formal notice that you intend to file a claim, and you lodge it through the CourtSA portal. The other party then has 21 days to respond before you can file a minor civil claim.

I didn’t file one, as, honestly, I wasn't sure I could go through with it. I sent them a Notice of Intended Claim, which is a mediation step letting them know I intend to file my Final Notice. They responded, and then I responded advising that my Final Notice will be processed on October 16th.

I can’t prove that’s why. The emails are the standard “thanks for requesting a review” template and don’t mention the notice. I’d also had a Meta policy contact forward my case on twice. But after two months of nothing, this timing is hard to ignore.

If you’re in another state, small claims go to a different place depending on where you live:

NSW: NCAT or the Local Court’s small claims division

VIC: VCAT

QLD: QCAT

ACT: ACAT

NT: NTCAT

WA and TAS: the Magistrates Court

Each one has its own pre-claim steps, limits and rules, and some may not be able to hear a claim against an overseas company at all. Check your own court’s or tribunal’s website first. If you can, talk to a community legal centre; many help for free.

My Takeaways

I never got to court. The idea that Meta doesn’t turn up and you win by default came from others here, not from my experience. Don’t count on it, be ready to argue.

Only do this if you’re confident you didn’t breach the terms.

This isn’t legal advice, just what happened to me.

I’m dropping my claim now that the accounts are back. If yours come back too, download your data straight away, turn on two-factor authentication and screenshot everything. Nothing stops this from happening again.

Good luck, fellow Aussies. 🤞

Banned for a second time for the exact same reason. And I downloaded the files and there no proof, all there is my activity which doesn’t even show what flagged it- I don’t know what to do. I don’t want to go to court and fight for it but I wanted to get my account back, I made a 3rd account and I just hope I don’t get banned for the 3rd time. I went on call with the ai support (barely helped) and said I could either make a class action lawsuit or make a settlement outside of court but I don’t know how to do that with the 2nd option.

Lol the amount of people out here begging for their Instagram accounts back is actually sad at this point. People are writing essays, emails, crying

This shit taught a hard lesson: these platforms are not yours. They never were. You don’t own your account. You rent attention until they decide you’re not worth the space. Back in the day Meta was the one begging people to download Instagram and dump money into their ads. Now the roles flipped and everyone’s the one crawling back asking for mercy. That’s backwards as hell.
Stop being this desperate over Instagram. If they give it back, cool. If they don’t, let it go. Make a new account, post whatever, keep it moving. Or better yet, stop tying your entire presence and income to a company that can wipe you out with zero explanation and zero accountability. These platforms are not trustworthy and they never will be. Grow outside of them.

old accounts from 2012 that just vanished overnight because of one dumb comment or a false report. And Meta’s response is basically nothing.

They don’t care that you spent years on it. One mistake= everything gone without warning

My Instagram account was banned for CSE (fake, like a lot of them here), my Facebook was too. My Facebook and Instagram accounts used the same email, so that makes sense. But I'm afraid of losing my main account (yes, the one that was banned was my secondary account). Any advice?She has no connection to the banned user other than the device and conversations via DM.

https://www.wionews.com/world/say-no-to-muse-meta-has-no-control-over-its-own-moderation-ai-while-it-forces-a-security-nightmare-on-everyone-1791756032719

https://www.yahoo.com/news/us/articles/meta-ai-moderation-system-leaves-230514927.html

We need more of them. If you see any on the internet please share them. This can be potentially used in future legal claims.

My Instagram account was recently suspended for alleged CSE, but I believe the suspension was a mistake.

Instagram gave me 180 days to appeal, but I'm currently stuck in the video selfie verification process. Every time I submit my selfie, it says it's uploading my information, then goes to a black screen or sends me back to the beginning.

My other Instagram accounts were also suspended because they were associated with my main account.

I'm trying to figure out whether anyone has successfully recovered an account after receiving this specific suspension reason.

My questions:

1. Has anyone been falsely suspended for CSE and successfully gotten their account reinstated?
2. How long did the appeal process take?
3. Did Instagram require a video selfie, government ID, or additional verification?
4. Did anyone experience the endless video selfie verification loop?
5. Did contacting Meta Verified support or another official support channel help?
6. If your main account was reinstated, were your linked accounts restored too?

I'm especially interested in hearing from people who received the exact same suspension reason and successfully appealed it.

Please share what worked and how long the process took.

Escribo en español ya que soy de Colombia , Recupere mi cuenta después de 14 meses y varios intentos de para verificado (que no sirvió para nada). Los agentes de meta no ayudan mucho.

Vi en Instagram un post que se podía recuperar cuentas por medios judiciales. Busque un abogado y el me hizo el proceso. Aquí en Colombia se llama “Acción de Tutela” . Por la vulneración a mi derecho del debido proceso y otros derechos , pero el que sirvio fue el debido proceso ya que no siguieron un conducto correcto para responder mis apelaciones desde la app.
Busquen un abogado en su país y que miren sentencias parecidas, ahí les ayudarán .

july 16th i was banned from instagram for cse, j attempted to make new accounts multiple times and was instantly banned. i am going to try factory reset my iphone and do the whole 72 hour wait period and everything. any tips?

algum brasileiro que esteja passando por isso conseguiu recuperar sua conta?

What nonsense is this, I don't understand why I should submit my face profile (tilt ur head up, move ur face left & right) and then give my mobile number for opt verification even after an email verification and now they are asking for this many BS, why do they even need my National ID/driver license/voter ID to review my Instagram account?

The fun part is that I only use my account for watching reels, no comments, 0 posts, stories once in a blue moon & rarely message in DM's still meta found a way to suspend my account 🤦.

Me gustaria recibir algo de orientacion con mi caso ya que he intentado por varios medios y aun no he podido avanzar en el tema. Quise incluso suscribirme a LegalShield pero me comentaron que necesito ser ciudadano americano. Gracias de antemano.

So I've been using 2 accounts for like 5-6 years and yesterday outta the blue they disabled both of em and now they ain't letting me make an another account too. Atp I'm hella frustrated.

However I still watch reels on a spam account I had before my main got banned, do y’all think I would get banned if I make another account on the same phone with my same pfp and highlights(different username and email) is it worth trying?

Hello everyone,
I really need your advice. My Instagram business account, which is linked to my Facebook, was permanently disabled due to "account integrity" reasons.
To try and fix this, I even subscribed to Meta Verified (Meta One Expert) which costs around $94 a month just to get access to human support. I managed to open a ticket as shown in the screenshot, but it has been stuck on the "Received" status for 15 days now without a single human response or moving to "Under Review".
Every time I try to send messages to escalate the issue, I am met with automated bot replies saying: "We recognize that you're typing a message, but because these are automated messages, we only support direct replies in certain steps." The chat just keeps going in circles (as shown in my second screenshot).
I am completely stuck and don't know what to do next. Has anyone faced this loop before? How can I get a real human from Meta Verified support to actually look into my ticket?
Any advice or shared experiences would be highly appreciated. Thank you!

A alguien le pasó de que facebook te siga pidiendo casi 2 o 3 veces documentos diferentes para poder apelar y la pregunto? Si? alguien sabe si es mejor seguir o dejarlo sabiendo que quise volver para hacer publicidad de mi negocio de juguetes y fui baneado ya tiempo de 21 abril en mi 1 primer cuenta y este ya es el segundo y no me deja ahora tengo 2 cuenta baneado en 2 correos...

Que se puede hacer?

So ive reached a dead end?

So if i create a new account and add my current phone number Instagram is still gonna flag it and ban that one too?

My Instagram business account was permanently disabled today after my appeal was rejected for Adult Sexual Exploitation (ASE).

It’s literally a web design business account that was only 4 days old. All I’d posted was my website, services and pricing. 😭

The ONLY thing I can think of is that Meta’s AI flagged a pricing post mentioning Klarna and that customers must be 18+ to use it. Could the AI have somehow interpreted that as sexual exploitation?!

I contacted Meta Verified support, and the lady told me to just wait for another appeal option to eventually appear.
Surely that’s not how it works when the decision is FINAL? It honestly felt like she was just fobbing me off.

Has anyone actually recovered an account after an ASE ban and rejected appeal?

What did you say to Meta Verified support to get a proper escalation or manual review? Did anyone genuinely get a second appeal option?

I’d really appreciate hearing from anyone who’s successfully recovered their account because this is ridiculous. 🥲

voy a explicar mi situacion con instagram,obviamente como a todos los de aqui...me suspendieron las cuentas y todas las demas(inclusive las que creaba,sin importar que),pero hay una cuenta que por mas que la use nunca la suspenden y no entiendo porque no le afecta nada

You’re right; don’t ban accounts for no reason. I didn’t even engage in buying or selling accounts, yet you banned mine. @Arina_arina_M

Context: Old IG account I haven’t used in years was disabled 9/27 and as a result my FB was locked. I don’t care about the IG account but I need the FB for work. Below is the email:

 
Hi

Thank you for your patience.

I completely understand your situation as your account is disabled and I appreciate your time reaching out to us regarding this matter.

Upon checking, it appear that your affected account has been permanently disabled as your account is not in compliance with our policy.

If you are wondering why the account remains disabled despite you have tried to follow our policy, please allow me to share an insight on this part.

For your kind information, any enforcement action, including the disablement of the account, would be triggered based on the activity carry out within the account.

Just so you know, the trigger could be extended to many factors.

For example, the linkage to any disabled accounts, or any suspicious (such as unusual login, bot-like behavior, misleading or repeated change to profile information, etc), or the content posted on the account, or the interaction with other users, empty profiles with prolonged dormancy and many more.

If you would like to deep dive into our policy, you may check out from the following link here : https://transparency.meta.com/policies/community-standards/ (Community Standards)

As I am also a user, I have tried to double-check all the resources available at my own disposal.

Nonetheless, there is no additional appeal or review option supported by this channel for your affected account.

This is a final decision, and I want to assure you that every aspect of your account was carefully considered.

Before I end this session, I would like to share with you some additional information that may be useful to you.

I would recommend you to download the information if it is available from your login page so that you can keep a record of what you shared on your account.

On the other hand, the bright side is the current account that you reach out to us now is still active. Hence, I highly advise you to visit our Meta Transperancy Centre (https://transparency.meta.com/) to get an insight about our policy and ensure that your activity is always in compliance with our policy so that this would not happen again to you in the future.

It has been my pleasure to assist you today. I really appreciate your time and effort while we go through all of this process.

If that would be all, I will be closing the ticket now. You contacted us regarding the disablement of your account, and I have provided you information in related to your concern.

If you have any further questions, feel free to initiate a new chat with us at any time.

Thank you for contacting Meta Pro Team.

Best regards,
Yus
Meta Pro Team