Meta repeatedly snubs EU body over Facebook and Instagram user bans

An independent body which hears disputes from social media users in the EU says Meta virtually never replies when it raises cases of people who say they have been wrongly banned from their accounts.

Appeals Centre Europe looked at 4,600 cases of Facebook, Instagram and Threads users who said they had been wrongly banned, but Meta provided evidence in fewer than 100 of these cases.

Last year, the BBC was contacted by hundreds of Facebook and Instagram users in countries around the world, including the UK, who claimed they had been wrongly banned and had no way of getting their accounts back.

Appeals Centre Europe is one of a number of independent dispute settlement bodies which allow people in the EU to challenge social media platforms' decisions including on account bans and content moderation.

Its report shows only a snapshot of the wider social media landscape in Europe, where hundreds of millions of pieces of content are taken down by platforms every year for a variety of reasons.

Under EU law , online platforms should "engage in good faith" with the body, but its decision is not legally binding.

Account bans were the biggest issue reported to it in the year leading up to March 2026.

"In the vast majority of cases related to account suspensions, platforms are unable or unwilling to provide the content which allows us to independently review their decisions," it said in its transparency report.