Meta faces Oct. 29 deadline over Instagram suspension

Sen. Chris Van Hollen asked Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Thursday to explain why the No Kings Coalition's official Instagram account was suspended for more than an hour during voting-related activity over the weekend.

The Maryland Democrat said administrators were unable to regain access for hours, limiting their ability to communicate with supporters. He asked whether Meta had discussed the coalition internally and why account access took so long to restore.

Oct. 29 response deadline

Van Hollen's letter said Meta gave shifting explanations for the incident. Meta spokesperson Andy Stone first attributed the suspension to high volumes of posting, sharing and commenting, then later referred to the account's “reading” behavior, according to the letter.

Democratic Sens. Ron Wyden, Chris Murphy, Richard Blumenthal and Jeff Merkley joined the inquiry, the letter said. Van Hollen also asked why the account was not covered by Meta's cross-check program, which is designed to add human review for certain civic or public-interest accounts before high-impact enforcement actions.

The letter cited other election-related moderation problems, including a disruption involving Ohio Democratic Senate nominee Sherrod Brown's campaign ads on Facebook and restrictions affecting Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's Instagram. Meta's Oversight Board on Tuesday described the incidents as “recurring enforcement failures in Meta’s election integrity efforts.”

Van Hollen asked Zuckerberg to provide answers by Oct. 29, including what steps Meta will take before election day to prevent civic-information accounts from being taken offline without notice.