[Life] Meta Social Platforms Experience Account Suspension Issues; Ministry of Digital Affairs Requests Adjustment of Age Verification Tools

Meta's social media platforms Threads, Instagram, and Facebook have recently experienced a series of unannounced account suspensions. Some adult users received system notifications stating their accounts were locked for being "under 13 years old"; Meta responded that this was due to a technical error. The Ministry of Digital Affairs (MODA) stated today (16th) that it continues to urge Meta to expedite the account unblocking process and to review and adjust its age verification tools, proposing optimization measures. MODA pointed out that Meta recently encountered technical issues while implementing its age verification mechanism, leading to the erroneous suspension of accounts for Facebook, Instagram, and Threads users worldwide starting late on the 14th. MODA explained that this incident originated from Meta's global online safety measures for minors announced on May 7th of this year. When implementing its age verification mechanism to proactively identify and remove users under 13, Meta experienced technical problems, resulting in the erroneous suspension of some accounts. This is a global technical issue for Meta, not specific to any particular region or group. MODA stated that starting from the morning of the 15th, it proactively requested Meta Taiwan to quickly assist in the restoration of suspended accounts. Accounts of several media outlets and public figures from all political parties have been progressively recovered. MODA indicated that if a Taiwanese user's account is mistakenly suspended, they can appeal through the following official channels: first, the Facebook account suspension appeal channel; second, the Instagram account suspension appeal channel; and third, the Threads account suspension appeal channel. MODA emphasized that it continues to urge Meta to expedite the account unblocking process and to review and adjust its age verification tools, proposing optimization measures to protect the rights and interests of the public. (Editor: Liao Yi-ting)