“We have suspended your group,” read the message sent by Facebook to the admin accounts of multiple groups on Tuesday.

Phi Phi, an admin of a group with hundreds of thousands of members that had been active for nearly 10 years, expressed shock upon receiving a suspension notice. Her group was labeled “dangerous individuals and organizations” and removed from Facebook. “I am filing a complaint with Facebook, but I don’t know what the outcome will be,” she said.

A 3D-printed Facebook logo is seen placed on a keyboard in this illustration taken March 25, 2020. Photo by Reuters

Ngo Minh Hieu, admin of several cybersecurity groups, also faced similar issues. Two of his groups were suspended, and one was required to change its name. “It’s unclear whether this is a technical error or if someone is exploiting the platform’s flaws to make mass reports,” he said. “We have contacted Meta for resolution.”

In response, many admins opted to temporarily disable group activities. “It seems Facebook may be conducting an account scanning campaign in Vietnam, which sometimes triggers these issues,” one admin explained. “As a precaution, we paused our activities to avoid further problems.”

This issue has not been confined to Vietnam. On Reddit’s Facebook community (r/facebook), admins and users have voiced frustration over the mass suspensions. Some reported that all the groups they manage were removed at once, while others expressed disbelief at the alleged violations. For example, a bird photo group with nearly one million members was flagged for nudity, while an interior design group with millions of members received a violation for referencing “dangerous organizations.”

“We’re aware of a technical error that impacted some Facebook Groups,” Meta spokesperson Andy Stone told tech site TechCrunch in an email statement on Tuesday. “We’re fixing things now.”

The cause of the bans remains unclear, though many suspect faulty AI-based moderation systems may be to blame.

This is not the first time users have encountered such issues. In 2022 many Facebook accounts globally were locked, and some users could not appeal. At the time a Facebook spokesperson attributed the issue to a technical glitch.

Over the years many users have reported sudden suspensions of groups and fanpages for unclear reasons. While some have successfully appealed and resumed operations, Meta has rarely disclosed the reasons behind such occurrences.