Malaysians Are Losing Their WhatsApp Accounts — and It Is Not (Mostly) Their Fault
Since mid-September 2026, Malaysian social media has filled up with the same two screenshots over and over: one saying “Account in review”, the other saying “This account can’t use WhatsApp”. Personal numbers, business numbers, old accounts, new accounts — banned, often with no warning and no clear reason. On 25 September 2026 the issue got big enough that the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) issued a formal statement and referred cases to Meta.
This article pulls together what is actually happening, what real Malaysian users are reporting on Threads, Facebook and X, the official fix that works (and the one that doesn’t), and the recovery scams now circulating in the same comment sections.
The Two Screens, and What Each One Actually Means
There are two very different ban states, and mixing them up is why so much advice online is useless:
- “Account in review” — your account activity and device info are being checked against the Terms of Service. WhatsApp says results come “typically within 24 hours”. This state is recoverable and most accounts in it do come back, either automatically or after tapping Request a review.
- “This account can’t use WhatsApp” — the hard ban. The screen says recent activity doesn’t follow the Terms of Service. In the worst variant, the line below reads “Requesting a review is not available” — no button, no appeal, number dead.
Why It Is Happening: Meta Has Already Admitted a System Error
This is not a Malaysia-only crackdown. The wave started globally in August 2026. Indonesia’s Ministry of Communication and Digital Affairs (Kemkomdigi) wrote to Meta on 14 August, got no satisfactory answer, and summoned Meta’s Asia-Pacific representatives to Jakarta on 26 August. There, Esther Samboh, Head of Public Policy for WhatsApp and Messenger in Asia Pacific, said it plainly: while catching bad accounts, “our system made a mistake” — a global error that wrongly blocked accounts that had done nothing wrong. Meta apologised and promised in-app appeals would be reviewed in under 24 hours.
Layered on top of the system error, three real violation patterns are getting accounts swept up for good:
- Stolen WhatsApp Web sessions. Indonesian security researchers found accounts hijacked via WhatsApp Web and used to blast gambling spam — which trips Meta’s anti-spam system into a permanent ban. The victim’s number dies for spam they never sent.
- Unofficial modified clients (GB WhatsApp, FM WhatsApp and friends) — zero tolerance from Meta, and the accounts using them get caught in the same net.
- Bulk “blast” marketing tools — mass-unsolicited messaging through unofficial channels looks exactly like spam, because it is.
That is the context behind MCMC’s 25 September statement: hacked and blocked are related but different problems. Accounts compromised by irresponsible parties get misused for fraud or spam, and then the platform blocks them. Meta’s false positives made it worse — clean accounts got caught alongside the guilty ones.
What Malaysians Are Actually Saying
We crawled public Threads, Facebook and X posts on 28 September 2026. The volume is heavy, the tone is angry, and the pattern is consistent — including people who did nothing “wrong” by any ordinary reading of the rules.
A sample of what is out there (names as displayed publicly):
- @nrinarshad (28 Sep): banned a third time in five days — “bnned 23/9, 26/9, 27/9…. Saya tired exhausted semua ada…. saya bukan business owner..saya ni ordinary people je tau…”
- @by.nanabelle (24 Sep): “AKU DAH KENA WHATSAPP PERMANENTLY BANNED!!! Dah 2 kali request REVIEW lps tu okey, kali-3 terus banned xboleh request ape2 dah!!!” — 155 likes, 116 replies, most of them the same story.
- @jy00ungg (20 Sep): a month without WhatsApp: “dah sebulan takde ws. boleh tekan ke request review tu?”
- Sayed Hussain Shubbar (Threads, ~3 weeks in): “Day 17. Still nothing. Two and a half weeks since WhatsApp permanently banned my account with no explanation, no review, and no acknowledgment that a real person has ever looked at it.”
- Zamrin Md Zin (Facebook, 27 Sep): “Aje giler meta..x sampai seminggu..2 kali kena.. personal whatsapp..x de connect mana2 API..naya..” — a personal number, not connected to any API, hit twice inside a week.
- @nur.nurliaa (27 Sep): pleading directly with the regulator — “mohon pihak mcmc untuk mengambil tindakan” — which is exactly the pressure that produced MCMC’s statement.
The replies are where the practical knowledge lives. One user-reported sequence that has worked for several people (41 likes on that reply): uninstall WhatsApp, restart the phone, reinstall, clear a little storage, update iOS, then activate the verification code — “sy buat semua ni..activekan code tu 3kli buat bru dpt bukak blik whatsapp”. Others simply bought a new number and told every contact to re-add them. That is not an official fix — treat it as community folklore with mixed results — but it keeps appearing under every ban post.
The Scams Have Arrived
Where there is panic, there is a “helper”. One Threads post from July 2026 — “Saya dah dapat balik ws saya hehe nak saya tolong boleh pm” — sits at 978 likes and 277 shares, with comment after comment saying “Saya dah dm awak. Help me pleaseee”. MCMC’s statement warned about this exact pattern: parties offering account recovery in exchange for money, personal information or verification codes. Anyone who asks for your 6-digit SMS code or your two-step verification PIN is not recovering your account — they are taking it.
How to Fix It: The Official Route, Step by Step
- If you see “Account in review” — wait for the review to complete, or tap Request a review in the app. Meta committed to reviewing appeals in under 24 hours. Do not uninstall and re-register immediately; that can reset the review.
- If the review button is missing (the hard “This account can’t use WhatsApp” screen), use the official contact form at whatsapp.com/contact, choose your platform, and submit the number in full international format with a short factual description. Business App users can use the in-app support option.
- Check the honest reasons before you appeal: did you use GB/FM WhatsApp, a bulk blast tool, or get your WhatsApp Web session hijacked? Say what actually happened and what you have changed — reviews by real humans go better than “I did nothing wrong” spam.
- If official channels dead-end, MCMC has formally invited Malaysians to lodge a complaint so the case can be referred to Meta: mcmc.gov.my.
- Never pay a recovery agent, never share your verification code or 2SV PIN, and never install a “fix” APK. The free version of this scam costs you the account; the paid version also costs you the money.
Prevention: The Boring List That Actually Reduces Your Risk
- Turn on Two-Step Verification (Settings > Account) — MCMC’s first named defence.
- Give your 6-digit SMS code to nobody, ever, for any reason. Not “Meta support”, not “your friend whose account got hacked” — that urgency is the hack.
- Audit Settings > Linked devices and log out anything you do not recognise. Stolen WhatsApp Web sessions are a major entry point in this wave.
- Stop using modified clients and unofficial bulk-sender tools. If you run marketing on WhatsApp, use the official WhatsApp Business Platform through a legitimate provider — the API exists precisely so you don’t have to spray messages from personal phones.
- Keep chat backups current so a recovery — or a move to a new number — doesn’t cost you the history too.
Update, 28 September: MCMC Gives Meta a 3pm Deadline
On 28 September 2026, Communications Minister Datuk Seri Fahmi Fadzil told reporters that MCMC had given Meta until 3pm that day to respond, after the company asked for more time to investigate the technical aspects of the cases. Deputy Communications Minister Teo Nie Ching said MCMC would meet Meta the same day.
Fahmi urged anyone locked out to file a complaint with MCMC, not just appeal inside the app: with a complaint on file, the regulator can take the case up with Meta directly to get the account reactivated. He cited account-takeover cases — hackers taking an account over — as an example of what qualifies. As of 4pm on 28 September, the outcome of that meeting had not been published.
Current Outcome, as of 28 September 2026
Meta says it has restored most accounts hit by the global system error and that appeals are reviewed within 24 hours. The “in review” population is largely getting through. The unresolved pain is the hard-ban population — the “Day 17, still nothing” crowd and the “kali-3 terus banned xboleh request ape2” crowd — where the review button is simply gone and the only escalation paths are the contact form, MCMC, and time. MCMC says it will keep monitoring and engaging Meta. The wave is still rolling: the screenshots in this article were captured on 27 and 28 September.
If your number comes back: turn on two-step verification before you do anything else. If it doesn’t — do not pay anyone who promises otherwise.
Sources
- MCMC statement, 25 September 2026 — reported by Bernama, The Star and Free Malaysia Today
- Kemkomdigi–Meta meeting, 26 August 2026 (Meta admission of global system error; Esther Samboh, Head of Public Policy, WhatsApp & Messenger APAC) — Kemkomdigi/jawawa
- Stolen WhatsApp Web sessions and unofficial-client bans in the regional wave — industry reporting, September 2026
- MCMC’s 3pm deadline for Meta, with remarks by Communications Minister Datuk Seri Fahmi Fadzil and Deputy Communications Minister Teo Nie Ching, 28 September 2026 — New Straits Times
- Public user posts on Threads, Facebook and X, captured 28 September 2026 (links inline; screenshots taken from public posts)
