Small biz IG + FB suspended 2 weeks, losing wholesale orders. Any NZ specific options?

Sam (Wgtn)2026-04-11 20:30 UTC980 views

Kia ora. We're a tiny coffee roastery in Wellington, two of us. Our Instagram (around 9k followers) and our Facebook page both went in that big wave at the end of March (we woke up to it on the 28th). The reason given was impersonation, which makes zero sense... we're impersonating ourselves? Most of our cafe wholesale customers and market regulars message us on there. We've put an order form on our website and emailed everyone we had addresses for, but I reckon we've lost half our reach. Appealed both. FB page appeal rejected, IG still in review. I saw something about MBIE helping small businesses with Meta last year? Is that still a thing? Any other NZ routes?

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3 comments

Anonymous2026-04-11 22:10 UTC
Yeah MBIE set up a dedicated mailbox for small businesses late last year to pass cases on to Meta for review. Search MBIE small business Meta, it's on their site. Put your page name, the date, the reason given and what you've already tried. No guarantees but it's free.
Jo K2026-04-12 03:45 UTC
Netsafe is worth a call too, free and they were really kind to me. And the email list + website thing is smart, wish I'd done that before it happened to us.
Sam (Wgtn)2026-04-26 23:15 UTC
Update: IG came back yesterday, FB page still gone. Did the MBIE email and talked to Netsafe. No idea which (if either) did it, or if it was just time. Diversifying hard from now on.