this move comes as part of the company’s policy—under parent company meta—to promote original accounts and reduce the spread of repetitive and non-original content that harms the platform’s quality.
in an official statement, facebook clarified that it had been deleting accounts at a rate of over one million per month. the company noted that the repeated appearance of the same content from multiple accounts—whether impersonating the original creator or simply spamming—deteriorates the overall user experience and limits the visibility of fresh and creative voices. as a result, the company is implementing stricter measures to curb this phenomenon and protect genuine creators.
however, the campaign hasn’t been without its downsides. dozens of users reported that their legitimate accounts were mistakenly deleted, which some attributed to flaws in the ai systems responsible for identifying non-authentic accounts.
users expressed their frustration on social media. one person shared on a reddit forum titled metalawsuits how the wrongful deletion of their account negatively impacted their work, professional relationships, and even severed a support network for their autistic son—leaving them feeling neglected and wronged.
the deletion wave hasn’t been limited to facebook; instagram was also affected, prompting some observers to dub the phenomenon the “meta ban wave.”
international media outlets have attempted to contact meta for further clarification on the deletion of legitimate accounts, but no detailed response has been provided so far.
facebook intends to continue its efforts to clean up the platform by targeting inactive or non-compliant accounts. any user whose account is deleted will receive a notification via email, informing them of the action and giving them a 180-day window to appeal. if the user takes no action within this period, the deletion becomes permanent and cannot be reversed.
this initiative aligns with a broader trend among major tech companies to update their policies and ensure a safer and more effective user experience. google, for instance, launched a similar plan in 2023 to remove inactive accounts.
in a related revelation, internal documents showed that meta ceo mark zuckerberg proposed a radical idea in 2022: deleting all facebook friendships and rebuilding the social network from scratch. the idea was met with strong opposition within the company. the current account cleanup campaign appears to be a partial and toned-down version of that earlier vision—yet it still raises questions about how well the platform balances the fight against fake and disruptive accounts with the protection of real users’ digital presence.