WhatsApp Users Complain Of Account Bans After Instinct Sign-Up; Company Responds (AI-generated) An X user, Atharva Padhye, tweeted that his WhatsApp account was banned immediately after he signed up for Instinct. He also alleged that he was not able to receive any response from the support team of Meta-owned WhatsApp. Seeking a solution, Padhye tagged WhatsApp, Shah said, “My account was banned on WhatsApp right after I signed up on Instinct. No way to appeal. No response from support. Please help @WhatsApp, @kunalb11, @instinct.” In a response to Padhye, WhatsApp has specifically warned that linking an account to unofficial third-party apps may result in a temporary or permanent ban. It said that if users do not see an option to request a review, it means that the account ban is final and cannot be appealed. The alleged WhatsApp response to Padhye reads, “Using third-party apps like Instinct can put your account at risk. These unofficial apps and websites are fake WhatsApp apps and websites developed by third-parties. They aren't supported because we can't validate their security or privacy practices. Linking your account to an unofficial app or website, now or in the past, may result in a temporary or permanent account ban.” Notably, this response is particularly significant as WhatsApp has explicitly identified Instinct while explaining its policy on unofficial third-party apps. However, it has not provided a separate explanation of the specific activity that led to Padhye's account ban. After the reports of the WhatsApp service disruption, Shinn shared an update on the issue. Mentioning WhatsApp, Shinn explained that a configuration issue on the Instinct’s side interrupted payments to one of its service providers. He said, “An update on WhatsApp service. For part of this morning, Instinct wasn’t able to reply to users on WhatsApp because a configuration issue on our side interrupted payments to one of our service providers. The issue has now been resolved, and WhatsApp is working normally again. Messages you sent us during the outage were received, and we're following up with anyone who didn't get a response. We’re sorry for the disruption and are making changes to prevent it from happening again. We’ll keep you informed whenever something like this affects Instinct.” Shinn confirmed that the issue had been fixed and that Instinct's WhatsApp service was working normally again. He also said that the company had received messages sent during the disruption and was following up with users who did not receive a response. However, his statement focused on the temporary service disruption and did not specifically address Padhye's claim that his WhatsApp account had been banned after signing up for Instinct. Govind Choudhary is the Chief Copy Editor for Tech at Times Now with over five years of experience in the media industry. He covers consumer technolog... View More