Meta Deactivates 550,000 Accounts in Australia Age Ban Compliance

Meta Platforms Inc. deactivated nearly 550,000 accounts across its services in Australia last week to comply with the country's new law prohibiting social media access for users under 16. The move affected 330,693 Instagram accounts, 173,497 Facebook accounts, and 39,862 Threads accounts, which the company identified as likely belonging to minors through age estimation methods including user activity analysis and selfie verification.

The ban took effect on December 10, 2024, making Australia the first democracy to implement a nationwide minimum age requirement for major social media platforms. The legislation, known as the Online Safety Amendment (Social Media Minimum Age) Act 2024, amends the earlier Online Safety Act 2021 and applies to services such as Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Snapchat, X (formerly Twitter), Reddit, YouTube, Twitch, and Threads. Platforms must verify users' ages and block those under 16, with non-compliance carrying fines of up to 49.5 million Australian dollars, or about 33 million U.S. dollars.

Meta stated in a company blog post that it is committed to meeting its legal obligations and will continue refining its multilayered compliance processes....