Meta urges Australia to rethink under-16 social media ban after blocking over 500,000 accounts

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has issued new pleas to the Australian government to reconsider its recently enforced social media ban for under 16s, after the tech giant blocked over half a million accounts on its platforms in one month.

Australia’s Online Safety Amendment Act 2024 came into effect on Dec. 11, barring access to 10 major services including Meta’s Instagram, Alphabet’s YouTube, Bytedance’s TikTok, Reddit

, Snapchat, and Elon Musk’s X.

Meta has since removed nearly 550,000 accounts believed to belong to under-16s between Dec. 4-11, it said in a blog post on Sunday. On Instagram, it removed around 330,000 accounts, around 173,500 on Facebook, and nearly 40,000 on Threads.