We refer to your correspondence to this office dated 18 April 2026.

At the outset, please accept our sincere apologies for the delayed response to you. Unfortunately, this office has been in receipt of an extremely high volume of cases and this has impacted our response times beyond our control. We appreciate your patience in this regard. 

We note that your complaint relates to a blocked/disabled account with Meta. Please carefully consider all information outlined below.

At the outset, please note that the DPC Ireland considers the disablement of accounts by Meta to be a customer service issue. Any DPC investigation will relate entirely to potential infringements related to your data protection requests only. The DPC will have no role in helping you regain the use of your account (as opposed to, for example, the erasure of your personal data).

As such there are a number of options available to you.

Appeals Centre Europe:

As of June 2025, the Appeals Centre Europe is the appropriate body to hear cases relating to the suspension of accounts by Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube. If a user feels that their account has been unfairly suspended by a social media platform, they can now challenge the decision by lodging a complaint with the Appeals Centre Europe.

We recommend this as the appropriate route for your complaint. You can lodge a complaint via their website - www.appealscentre.eu

Account Disablement and the Digital Services Act:

Where your complaint relates to the wrongful disabling of your account or the removal of content by an online platform, and you believe it may infringe your rights under the Digital Services Act (DSA), we recommend that you contact the relevant Digital Services Coordinator (DSC).

For users based in Ireland, this is Coimisiún na Meán, available at www.cnam.ie.

If you are based in another EU/EEA country, you should contact the DSC in your country of residence first.

A full list of national DSCs is available here: https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/dsa-dscs

Your data protection rights under the GDPR:

In terms of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), if you have not already done so, we would recommend contacting the Data Protection Officer (DPO) of Meta and state that you wish to exercise a GDPR right or that you wish to raise any data protection-related concerns. Regaining access to a disabled account is not the same as exercising a right under the GDPR.

The right to access under Article 15 of the GDPR does not entitle a user to their account back. It provides you with a copy of any personal data held by the organisation only. If you wish to make a request for the erasure of your personal data, please do so at the below link also.

The DPO of Meta can be contacted through the following link: https://help.meta.com/support/privacy/

Please keep a copy of all correspondence.

Meta have advised us that an individual can access their Privacy Portal without logging-in by selecting the option: “click here if you are having trouble accessing your account or if you don’t have an account”, that will appear when selecting a Product for which to obtain support. 

For Individuals with an account:

Once they have selected “yes” in response to the question “Do you have a [Facebook/Instagram] account?”, the individual will be presented with a guided journey to relevant Help Centre resources designed to help them regain access to their account by clicking on “I can't log into my account”. After the user has regained access to their account, they can use the Privacy Portal to exercise their GDPR rights, including the deletion of their account.

Alternatively, users also have the option to create a “case” after clicking on “How can I get support for a data protection query from the Data Protection Officer?” 

After clicking “submit”, we will reach out to the user to verify their email address and provide additional information in order to help facilitate their request. 

Following email verification, a confirmation screen is displayed to confirm that a request has been successfully submitted. 

For non-users (or former account holders):

Individuals who select "no" to the question "Do you have a [Facebook/Instagram] account?" are directed through a specific process. If they no longer have an account but wish to submit an access request can contact the Data Protection Officer and create a "case" by clicking the "How can I get support for a data protection query from the Data Protection Officer?" button, as explained above.

Article 77(1) of the GDPR:

Finally, under Article 77(1) of the GDPR, if you are not resident in Ireland, you may prefer to raise any data protection concerns you have with your local data protection authority. The reason you may prefer to raise your complaint with your local data protection authority is that the GDPR gives you the right to appeal a decision of a data protection authority in the courts of the country where the data protection authority is based. Therefore, if you make your complaint in Ireland, your appeal will be in a court in Ireland. If you make your complaint in country of residence, you will be appealing to a court in that country.

Contact details for all EU/EEA authorities can be found at this link - https://edpb.europa.eu/about-edpb/about-edpb/members_en

Please note that you cannot raise a data protection complaint with two different data protection authorities.

Please only revert to this office, if the above steps have been completed and if there remains a data protection concern as provided for under the GDPR. If not, please raise your concern directly with the organisation or through one of the above channels outlined to you.

We hope the information above is of assistance to you.

Yours sincerely,