MG Siegler Got Banned From WhatsApp for No Reason

MG Siegler, writing at Spyglass:

Yes, that’s right, for a third time in as many years, I’ve been banned by Meta. What for? Do you really have to ask? Nobody knows. My suspicion is that it’s directly tied to the claiming of usernames on WhatsApp, which Meta opened up yesterday. After I claimed mine, it seemingly logged me out of my other active instances. And when I went to log back in... boom.mg-3 Banned.

No explanation. No warning. Just a note that “This account can no longer use WhatsApp.” As with Instagram and Facebook, you can submit a review of the ban and they say they’ll look at it and let you know within 24 hours — but no promises. When I did this the first go-around with Instagram, I actually lost the appeal. Why? Nobody knows. Again, it took a personal plea. And I’m insanely lucky to be able to do that. As my replies then and now can attest, many are not so lucky. Many are just banned and never heard from again. At least on those services.

This is bullshit. How do I know this is bullshit? Because it literally happened to me! And, in fact, keeps happening to me! And I’ll get it fixed again because I just so happen to know people, which is arguably worse bullshit!

MG lives in the U.K. and thus needs WhatsApp for many aspects of daily life. I have never seen the appeal of WhatsApp, and would rank iMessage’s dominance here in the U.S. as one of the many reasons I’m so glad to live here. But WhatsApp is, finally, clearly getting Meta-ized. MG, later on in the same column:

But all I see in the news is that Meta was having a hell of a time monetizing WhatsApp after years and years and they think they found someone who can do that. Also, how have those other “hackquisitions” worked out for everyone? What I see is Meta no longer giving a shit about the product or the experience, just the monetization. They’re ready to fucking milk it.

Oh, and while MG was (is?) banned from his WhatsApp account, messages from other people go through to his account with no indication to the sender that he can’t see them. What a fucking system.

★ Thursday, 2 July 2026