WhatsApp places millions of accounts under review, blocking access worldwide
On 3 August 2026, WhatsApp – the messaging service owned by Meta – placed a large number of user accounts under review, restricting all app features for up to 24 hours. Affected users saw an in‑app notice stating “Account in review. Date requested: 3 Aug 2026… typically within 24 hours.”
The review coincided with a broader technical problem that prevented Android users from sending photos, videos, stickers, documents or status updates, while plain text messages continued to work. Reports of the issue came from many countries, including Brazil, India, Mexico, Argentina, Italy, France, Venezuela, Belgium, Slovenia and Ecuador, and were logged on monitoring sites such as Downdetector.
Meta said the automated review is meant to stop abuse of the service, acknowledged that false positives can occur, and said it was working to restore access as quickly as possible. Users were instructed to use the “request review” button in the app to appeal the restriction; updating or reinstalling the app did not resolve the problem.
Entities: Indrajit Deb Gupta · Meta Platforms · Meta Platforms Inc. · Meta Platforms, Inc. · WhatsApp · WhatsApp Business · WhatsApp Plus
Claims
What the coverage asserts, and how well corroborated each claim is across sources.
- [● 4 SOURCES] Meta said the review process is intended to prevent abuse of the service and that errors can occur. (a7427f42-2f51-4842-9140-2fe2c667d6e4, 60c56bd2-a6af-4425-82f6-fe2fa878fc71)
- [● 2 SOURCES] WhatsApp has over 3 billion monthly active users, so even a small percentage of affected accounts could involve millions of people. (5a08cb05-8a42-4cb1-81c5-f87e5a1302b5)
- [● 4 SOURCES] Affected users can appeal the restriction via a “request review” button in the app. (a7427f42-2f51-4842-9140-2fe2c667d6e4, 60c56bd2-a6af-4425-82f6-fe2fa878fc71)
- [● 2 SOURCES] The in‑app notification shown to affected users reads: “Account in review. Date requested: 3 Aug 2026… typically within 24 hours.” (Indian Express, The Hindu)
- [● 3 SOURCES] Meta did not disclose the technical cause of the account blocks or the media‑sharing failure. (Company statements)
- [● 5 SOURCES] The issue affected users in multiple countries, including Brazil, India, Mexico, Argentina, Ecuador, Slovenia, Belgium, France and Venezuela. (Various news reports)
- [DISPUTED] On 3 August 2026 WhatsApp placed multiple user accounts under review, restricting all app features for up to 24 hours. (a7427f42-2f51-4842-9140-2fe2c667d6e4, 48a20980-9b6b-4b3a-845e-da622109771f, f1a4b0d6-db6d-4935-96d1-163f24414f08, 5a08cb)
- [DISPUTED] During the same period, users on Android devices reported inability to send photos, videos, stickers, while text messages continued to work. (f9c39b48-9345-45d7-91b5-e34f71dc4558)
- [● 2 SOURCES] Users attempted to fix the issue by updating, reinstalling, or reinstalling the app, but these actions did not resolve the problem. (user reports in articles)
- [● 4 SOURCES] The “Account in review” notice indicated a request date of 3 August 2026 and promised a decision within 24 hours. (a7427f42-2f51-4842-9140-2fe2c667d6e4, 60c56bd2-a6af-4425-82f6-fe2fa878fc71)
- [● 3 SOURCES] During the outage, users could not send photos, videos, documents, stickers, or update their status. (f9c39b48-9345-45d7-91b5-e34f71dc4558, 96159aa2-ce56-49e9-b024-f072525347c7)
- [● 2 SOURCES] Thousands of accounts displayed a message stating “Account in review”. (user screenshots and article text)