Indonesia summons WhatsApp over mass account deactivations

Indonesia’s ministry of communication and digital affairs (Kemkomdigi) has summoned WhatsApp representatives to explain a wave of account deactivations reported by users, with the messaging platform acknowledging that a global system error wrongly disabled some accounts.

The ministry said it had received numerous public complaints from users who suddenly lost access to their WhatsApp accounts. It first wrote to Meta on 14 August seeking an explanation, but later called WhatsApp’s Asia Pacific representatives to appear in person after it said a response had not arrived within the expected timeframe.

Alexander Sabar, director general of digital space supervision at Kemkomdigi, said the government had been corresponding with Meta for around a week over the complaints. He said the ministry subsequently decided to request a direct explanation from the platform.

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During the meeting, Esther Samboh, WhatsApp’s head of policy for Asia Pacific, apologised to Indonesian users affected by the loss of access and said WhatsApp’s systems had mistakenly deactivated accounts that should not have been affected.

WhatsApp uses automated systems to detect accounts and behaviour that may violate its terms of service. However, according to Samboh, an error occurred during that process.

The company said it had since implemented mitigation measures and was working to restore access to accounts that were wrongly deactivated.

“This was a system error that occurred globally, and there was no effort to target Indonesia,” she said.

For users who have yet to regain access, WhatsApp said they can submit an appeal directly through the app. Samboh said that WhatsApp had committed to reviewing appeals within 24 hours.

The development puts pressure on WhatsApp to resolve the disruption quickly as the platform remains a major communications channel for consumers and businesses in Indonesia.

Kemkomdigi said it will continue monitoring public complaints and Meta’s follow-up response to the incident.

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