Has your WhatsApp Business API account been disabled? Is your phone number status showing “Banned”? If yes, do not worry, we have got you covered. In this article we will take a look at all the possible reasons which might lead to your account getting banned and also most importantly we will see how you can recover your account if you are in such a situation.
The first and most significant step: Do not panic! We understand you are in a problematic scenario and probably have a lot at stake. We empathize with you and we get the feeling of possibly losing your customers can be frustrating and nightmarish especially if you already have invested a lot into this. Do not worry, everything has a solution.
If you get an alert informing you that your business has been disabled then it means that your WhatsApp Business API account has been disabled (not your Meta Business account) possibly because you have knowingly or accidentally violated one of their business policies.
Let us see what are all the possible reasons that may lead to your account getting banned so that you can avoid them in the future and safeguard yourself.
Table of Contents
Reasons Why Your WhatsApp Business Account is Disabled
There are a number of reasons why WhatsApp may decide to block your WhatsApp Business Account. It is important to understand them and stay in compliance with WhatsApp’s privacy policies to prevent something like this from happening again in the future.
Sending Messages Without Obtaining Consent
Always keep in mind that customers have to opt in to receive messages from your business. You must ensure you get their consent before sending them additional messages. You cannot message random numbers as this will result in getting banned. So always make sure that you’re only sending messages to people who have given you permission to be contacted.
Multiple User Reports
It is fairly common for businesses to be blocked by users on WhatsApp if they are not interested in the product or service that you offer. However, getting blocked and reported by many users could arouse suspicion particularly if they happen within a short span of time. In order to prevent this, learn how to broadcast messages on WhatsApp effectively while adhering to best practices.
Impersonation
If you are found to be impersonating someone else using a fake account then you are bound to get banned. Pretending to be someone else like a celebrity or popular figure is against WhatsApp’s rules and WhatsApp will take your account down for safety reasons.
Sending Malicious Links
WhatsApp takes strict action over sending malicious software or viruses. Messaging suspicious links which may contain hazardous software or spyware is strictly prohibited and WhatsApp will ban your account to protect their users’ privacy and safety.
General Violation of WhatsApp’s Terms and Conditions
Avoid sending hateful, discriminatory, harmful or threatening messages. Also selling illegal goods such as firearms, drugs, and adult products is against WhatsApp’s commerce policy. It is recommended that you read it before you sign up in order to avoid getting banned. Any other direct violation of WhatsApp’s terms of service such as using unauthorized bulk senders is guaranteed to result in penalizing action.
Even if you did not engage in any of the malpractices and stayed within the boundaries of WhatsApp’s terms of service, it is still possible that you get banned. Let us jump straight away and see how you can get back access to your account in case of a ban.
How To Recover Your Banned WhatsApp Business API Account?
There are a few ways by which you can attempt to restore your account. Make sure you read carefully and implement the methods accordingly for the best possible chance of getting your account back.
Resolve the issue mentioned in their notice
First, you need to know why they disabled your account and fix the issue before you proceed to recover it.
To do this you need to open WhatsApp Manager . On the top where it shows the Account Disabled error, click on the View details in Business support home link.
It will take you to the account review page. Under the Disabled status, you might find out why they have restricted your account. The different kinds of notices you might receive are:
- Website: If the issue is related to your website, you need to ensure that you have entered the correct website that is currently live. Do not enter random URLs or other websites. Make sure you enter the URL of your own website.
- Spam: If the issue displayed is spam, you might have sent multiple messages repeatedly to users via the platform and were reported by a large number of receivers as spam. If this is the case, it will be very difficult if not impossible to get back access to your account.
- Business Policy violation: If the notice is related to a violation of WhatsApp’s business policy then it is most likely that your business belongs to a category that goes against WhatsApp’s guidelines. It may also be due to the fact that you have sent unsolicited messages or products to users.
Other than these, WhatsApp can also sometimes restrict your account for no valid reason. We’ve seen this happen to some of our users. Note that this is not intentional and is most likely due to a technical issue or incorrect flagging by their backend system.
Nonetheless, no matter what the problem is, make sure to rectify it before moving forward.
Adding as many details about your business on the Meta portal can help as this assures Meta of your transparency.
Request a Review
If you believe you have sorted out the issues that caused the ban to the best of your ability or if you think your account might have gotten banned without a genuine reason then you can proceed to request a review of your account.
To do this go to WhatsApp Manager and then go to the account review page and click on the Request review button on the right side of the page. In the popup that appears type in something like this:
In the popup that appears type in something like this:
Hello,
With all due regards, I have noticed that there has been a ban on my account. I have resolved all the issues that might be the reason for this restriction to the best of my ability. I kindly request you to review my account and restore it as soon as possible.
Thank you.
See to it that you use polite and formal language while drafting this message. WhatsApp officials usually review the request and restore your account within 6 hours if no additional details are required.
Still not Recovered?
If your account is still not recovered please conduct a thorough scan for any other possible issues and try to fix it accordingly to confirm you have not left anything behind then request a review again.
Some of our users have reported that they had to request a review 3-5 times before they got back their account!
What Next?
If you have tried all the above ways and you still couldn’t get back access to your account then we are sorry to say that your account may be banned permanently. If you still wish to use WhatsApp Business API then you can start over by creating a new account using a new number.
Follow the steps below to do it:
Start anew by following our step-by-step setup guide to setup your new business account with your new phone number.
- Delete your previous phone number from WhatsApp Manager.
- Then from your WhatsApp Business Accounts page, delete your account that got banned.
- Start anew by following our step-by-step setup guide to setup your new business account with your new phone number.
Conclusion
We hope you have learned a thing or two about how to avoid getting your WhatsApp business account banned and how to recover it in case of a ban. Do you know what the best way to prevent all this is? It is to carefully read and understand everything related to a WhatsApp Business account such as their commerce policy, terms and conditions etc. and adhere to them.
In case you have further doubts or queries make sure to check out our help desk. If you want to learn more about using WhatsApp for your business then take a peek into our blog. You may find really cool and useful tips there. Thank you for reading and we wish you good luck on the journey of recovering your WhatsApp Business account!
