Attorney General Tong Urges Meta to Protect Legitimate Political Activity on its Platforms

10/26/2026

Letter Follows Erroneous Suspension of No Kings Coalition Instagram Account

(Hartford, CT) – Attorney General William Tong today led a coalition of 14 attorneys general in a letter urging Meta to protect legitimate election-related activity on its platforms following the erroneous suspension of the No Kings Coalition’s Instagram account in the midst of nationwide demonstrations on October 17.

“This is not Meta’s first election cycle. The company should be able to handle a legitimate surge in online traffic related to a widely publicized day of action. The fact that they could not raises serious questions as to how prepared the company is to protect legitimate election-related activity on its platform,” said Attorney General Tong.

No Kings Coalition reported its Instagram account was suspended at approximately 1:30 p.m. ET on October 17, during the coalition’s nationwide day of action to support early voting. Administrators report they received no response from Meta for approximately 90 minutes as they sought to restore their account. No Kings reported it took more than four hours for their access to be fully restored.

Meta has stated that the company’s automated tool for monitoring AI noted a surge in the use of a Claude AI tool reading profiles, posts and hashtags. The high-volume traffic was incorrectly flagged as illicit “bot” activity, resulting in “automated protections” that took the No Kings account offline. The company’s explanation suggests that Meta is unable to differentiate between legitimate political activity and “bots”, leading the attorneys general to call on Meta to share how the company intends to protect legitimate policy activity during this critical time before, during and after the November 3 election, and beyond.

The attorneys general ask Meta to explain in detail why the No Kings account was suspended, what time Meta became aware of the suspension, and what steps the company took to rectify the error. The attorneys general ask Meta to explain whether and in what capacity human reviewers were involved in suspended and restoring the account. The letter asks Meta to disclose any other legitimate election-related accounts that were suspended or made unavailable during this election cycle. The letter further asks that Meta provide a detailed description of efforts the company is undertaking to ensure legitimate policy activity is distinguished from bot traffic going forward. Finally, the attorneys general ask that Meta detail how the company is maintaining and publicizing its method of redress for users whose accounts are unjustly suspended.

The attorneys general ask that Meta provide its response no later than Thursday, October 29.

Attorney General Tong led the attorneys general of California, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington in sending today’s letter.

Assistant Attorney General Rebecca Borné assisted the Attorney General in this matter.

Twitter: @AGWilliamTong

Facebook: CT Attorney General

Media Contact:

Elizabeth Benton
elizabeth.benton@ct.gov

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