Facebook ‘resolves’ restrictions on alcohol linked accounts

Meta, the parent company of Facebook, has confirmed that a technical error that wrongly flagged and limited recommendation visibility for numerous business pages, particularly those related to alcohol, has now been fixed.

In early January, many administrators worldwide received unexpected alerts stating that their business pages would no longer be suggested by Facebook’s algorithm because the content may not follow its rules. The notices referenced potential violations of Meta’s community standards but did not specify any particular breach.

Affected businesses ranged from wine, beer and spirits brands to health, wellness, beauty, gaming and non-profit organisations across multiple regions. The wording of the alerts confused netizens since their pages remained in good standing otherwise.

In its recent clarification, a Meta spokesperson described the matter as a technical error that erroneously marked certain pages as ineligible for algorithm-driven recommendations. The company said the issue has now been fixed and advised such page admins to ignore the earlier notifications. Meta also apologized for any disruption the glitch may have caused.