WhatsApp account restrictions and appeals

The same sending symptom can come from a volume ceiling, a quality or policy restriction, or a ban, and each path has a different owner.

Check the state in Bird

Open WhatsApp > Numbers in Bird and select the number. Read these fields together:

WhatsApp status: includes states such as connected, flagged, rate_limited, restricted and banned.
Quality rating: the quality value Meta last reported.
Messaging limit: the volume Meta permits for the owning portfolio.
Send rate: the throughput Meta permits for the number.

For a failed message, open the message details and keep the event, normalized error, meta_error_code and description. A rate_limited error means the send was throttled. The failed-versus-rejected explanation explains why the event type matters.

For a connected Business Account, read its ban field through the WhatsApp Business Account operation. Bird can include an appeal_url to Meta Business Support when the account's owning portfolio is known.

Check the state in Meta

Open WhatsApp Manager and open Phone numbers. The number's row shows its status, quality rating and messaging limit. A quality warning belongs to the number. An account or policy issue belongs in Meta's support tools.

Open Business Support Home, select the business portfolio that owns the WhatsApp Business Account, and open the WhatsApp account or issue shown there. Meta's available controls determine whether the issue can be reviewed.

Request a review

When Meta provides Request review, open the issue details, choose the available appeal reason, add accurate context, and submit it. Keep the policy or commerce requirement that Meta names in the issue in view while you prepare the request.

Meta's WhatsApp Business help article says a banned WhatsApp Business app account can show Request review and that most app reviews finish within 24 hours. That article does not promise the same timeline for a WhatsApp Business Platform account. For the Platform, follow the review status in Business Support Home and do not invent a completion date.

If Meta does not show a review option, the decision may not be appealable through that account. Contacting WhatsApp outside the review flow or through another account does not change the decision. A provider cannot remove a Meta ban.

WhatsApp Manager says Bird B.V. will need to verify your business

WhatsApp Manager can show "Account restricted: Before you can begin messaging, Bird B.V. will need to verify your business" on a WhatsApp Business Account. While Meta keeps that restriction, messages sent from the account through Bird fail with Meta error 131031 "Business account has been locked". Incoming messages still arrive. On a coexistence number, messages you send from the WhatsApp Business app still work.

Meta shows this banner when the business portfolio has no website. The banner names Bird because Bird is the partner on the account. Bird does not verify businesses for Meta and cannot lift the restriction.

In Meta Business Suite, select the business portfolio that owns the WhatsApp Business Account. Open Settings > Business info. Add the business website and business details. Meta's guidance for businesses that connect without a website says the business must add a website there before it can send messages.
Meta starts its review automatically after you add them. To follow the review, open Business Support Home and select the same portfolio.
Sending resumes after Meta approves the account. You do not need to reconnect the number.

Business verification is not required to lift this restriction. If the issue in Business Support Home asks for it, complete business verification for the portfolio.

Keep Bird connected as a partner on the account so Bird can keep reading its state.

Meta also uses 131031 for an account restricted or disabled for a policy violation. In that case, follow Request a review.

What Bird support can do

Bird support can help you identify the Bird message, number or Business Account, explain the state Bird last received from Meta, and confirm whether the failure was failed or rejected. Include the message identifier, number identifier, event, error and meta_error_code when you open a case.

Bird support cannot change Meta's quality rating, messaging limit, restriction, policy decision or ban. Bird also cannot approve a Meta appeal or promise when Meta will finish it. Use Meta's review control for the decision, then read the number or account again in Bird after Meta responds.

Prevent a repeat issue

Collect and honor WhatsApp opt-in.
Send content that follows Meta's WhatsApp Business Policy and Commerce Policy.
Watch the number quality and messaging limit before a quality problem becomes a sending restriction.
Treat a failed or rejected send as evidence to investigate, not as proof that the number is banned.

Continue with the documentation, guides and examples for this topic.

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