I have nothing else to say but that Manychat got my Instagram account banned.
MANYCHAT Got my Instagram account banned
I'd also like to add that my account was flagged as well. I received the following message from Instagram:
"You can't use direct messaging for 30 days. Your activity on Instagram may not follow our guidelines on spam. You can try to reverse our decision by confirming your identity."
I've had my account for 10+ years without any issues. Then several of my videos went viral, and everything changed. At the time, I was using automations daily across all of my videos. My guess is that the system may not be taking into account accounts that suddenly receive a large volume of identical comments, DMs, and automated replies due to viral content.
I'm not certain that's the cause, but after receiving the warning, I was able to verify my identity through Instagram's review process and my account was fully restored within minutes. Since then, the same thing has happened two more times, and each time I was reinstated after confirming my identity.
Ultimately, I decided to turn off my automations because I was concerned about losing access to my account. It's unfortunate because the automations were incredibly helpful for both me and my followers.
At this point, I'm honestly not sure what the best solution is. Very frustrating.
I enabled Manychat Yesterday and only created one automation for the post
and today not even 24 hours I got warning from instagram that My account has been spamming people
and as you can clearly see it says AI flags accounts who are asking to follow first before sharing something
and Manychat provides that feature in their automation and also clearly states in their official documentation that its fine to “ASK FOR FOLLOW” before sharing content
https://help.manychat.com/hc/en-us/articles/16654065283100-Quick-Automation-Auto-DM-links-from-comments#:~:text=Ask%20users%20to,engaged%20followers%20only.
this is really serious concern and I request Manychat to respond to this If Meta is clearing saying this is not allowed why you guys are allowing this in your automations???
Meta AI said the same
2. Follow-gating is explicitly banned
Your second DM says the link is "especially for my followers" and you must follow first. Instagram's own spam page from your first screenshot lists this exact behavior: "Claiming that others have to like, follow or share before they can see something." That's not a gray area, it's a direct policy hit.
We also got our IG account (200k audience) banned for almost 4 months stating that it violates the IG policies. I was with my family enjoying some time away from work when 3 of my reels went viral simultaneously and IG suspended the account.
Even though we keep a track and switch off our comment replies once comments on a post exceed 50. However, a business owner can’t just be sitting glued to the screen 24x7 to switch off an automation if the post goes viral. Expecting this from a creator is just cruel.
Manychat has to do something about it.
We understand that when a person comments, Manychat triggers the automation. That’s it.
But it is not that simple.
Does not mean if META flags an account after 100 messages/ 2 minutes, even then Manychat should keep triggering the automations. Something has to be done about it. Or other tools that will do something about it will kill Manychat in no time. No business wants to risk a 5,7,10 years old account for a software.
So, our direct ask is:
- We have seen automation tools that have started queuing messages to avoid sudden spikes. Is Manychat thinking about a solution on similar lines?
- Can Manychat keep a track of how many automated messages are being sent by an account in 24 hours - so that if there is a gradual surge in 24 hours period, then it can be queued or controlled. For new accounts this value will be low and as they grow the count grows. But if we talk about a particular week or month, we have a ballpark number for an account. And we feel that it can be tracked. Meta also must be tracking the same.
- The best solution - If something can be figured with the help of Meta technical teams. Though we have low hopes from this one.
Something has to be done about it and fast. People are losing their account everyday and it is just cruel.
Manychat is not the reason of the ban but surely it is party to the ban. We need to fix it.
I too, have been banned from sending DMs on Instagram (332,000 followers @thefranfields) after going viral and my Facebook business page (120,000 the Fran fields) for ONE YEAR. This is a devastating development for a social media run platform. There is no path to support for creators (even though I pay $50/mo for extended support) so how do we communicate for a resolution???
Guys, my 280k-follower business account, my 190k-follower second account, and my 60k-follower business account were all completely disabled. However, before the last account was disabled, I managed to contact Meta Live Support and asked them to call me. They called me almost immediately.
Before my final page was shut down, I also managed to get a special ticket created for the technical team. In other words, I contacted live support and had a technical support ticket opened to request a manual review of my accounts. Maybe the bans will be lifted, maybe not—I honestly don't know.
At this point, I don't think this has anything to do with ManyChat. Every single one of my pages receives around 2,000–3,000 messages per day, and all of them go through automation. I've been following both ManyChat's and Meta's rules for years without any issues.
At first, I also thought ManyChat was the cause, but if you check the Reddit thread below, you'll understand why I changed my mind. An influencer with 11 million followers had their account disabled in the exact same way. Right now, on the FixMyInstagram subreddit, there are hundreds of people reporting account bans and complaining about the same issue every day.
Finally, when I spoke with a Meta support representative, she accidentally let something slip. You could say she revealed more than she intended. She told me that there is currently a global crisis involving account suspensions and an unusually large wave of account bans. From what I've seen, many experts and industry observers believe Meta's AI moderation systems are malfunctioning and wrongly disabling accounts.
It's been three weeks.
For three weeks our company has been operating in crisis mode, losing customers and revenue every single day because of this issue.
During that time, not a single person from Manychat has reached out to us directly.
Not a single update.
Not a single progress report.
Not a single explanation of where our case actually stands with Meta.
You keep saying that you have direct communication with Meta, that you've escalated our accounts, and that you're working closely with their teams.
Great.
So where are the updates?
Has Meta responded?
Has anyone actually looked at our account?
Is there a ticket number?
Is there an ETA?
Or are you just telling every affected customer, "We've escalated it," and hoping they'll eventually stop asking?
Meanwhile, more and more people are joining this thread with the exact same issue.
This is no longer an isolated case.
What is even more disappointing is that this issue has apparently been under investigation since March, yet new customers continue connecting their Instagram accounts without any warning.
Why wasn't the feature temporarily disabled?
Why wasn't there a warning inside Manychat?
Why weren't users notified that there was an ongoing issue affecting Instagram messaging?
Instead, businesses continue paying for the platform, continue using the feature, continue getting affected, and only discover the problem after their business is already damaged.
At this point it feels like protecting subscription revenue has been a higher priority than protecting your customers.
We're not asking for another generic response.
We're asking for transparency, accountability, and real communication.
Right now, you're providing none of those.
I'd like to share some new information I've recently learned.
Meta has made its AI moderation systems incredibly aggressive since March 2026. Look into the Taiwan incident, Meta's moderation error, and the statements made by the Oversight Board regarding the issue.
In some countries, a new "Request Human Review" option has reportedly appeared below the appeal button. I'm not sure which countries currently have access to it. If it's available in your country, please let us know.
There's also another concerning claim: accounts with more than 1 million followers are allegedly always reviewed by a human moderator. If your account has fewer than 1 million followers, appeals are said to be handled entirely by AI.
Most importantly, there is significant pressure coming from both the EU and the United States. Meta has been facing multi-billion-dollar lawsuits over scams and fraudulent activity on its platforms. According to some reports, Meta is responding by showing courts that it is aggressively removing suspicious accounts using AI. In short, this may be one of the main reasons behind the current situation.
The recommendation many people are sharing right now is to use a different phone, a different internet connection/IP address, and create a brand-new ad account. I managed to recover one of my accounts this way, and it has been operating without any issues so far. I may still end up getting flagged by the AI again, but for now it seems to be working.
I also received some information from two friends who work at Meta. According to them, there is a great deal of internal chaos right now due to the massive number of lawsuits being filed over disabled business accounts. They described the situation as extremely chaotic.
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