WhatsApp error 368: account restricted by policy

What does a restriction actually mean?

That Meta has taken an enforcement action against the business account, usually after repeated policy issues rather than a single event.

The common causes are messaging content that breaches WhatsApp's commerce or business policy, a pattern of recipients reporting messages, or a business verification detail that does not hold up. What they share is that they concern the account rather than any particular message, which is why every send fails rather than some of them.

It is worth separating from quality limiting, which restricts how much a healthy account may send. A restriction is a judgement about whether the account should be operating at all, and it is not resolved by sending less.

How is it resolved?

Through Meta, in Business Manager, and only by the people who own the account.

The enforcement notice in Business Manager explains which policy was cited and whether an appeal is open. Appeals exist and sometimes succeed, but there is no timeline anyone can promise and no escalation path that runs through a provider. Nobody selling API access has visibility into an enforcement decision or the ability to influence one.

This is one of the few situations where the honest answer from any vendor is that they cannot help with the thing you most want help with. What they can tell you is which account is restricted and when it happened, which is what the connection timeline is for.

Common mistakes

• Asking a provider to lift it. An enforcement decision belongs to Meta and nobody else can see it.
• Connecting the number elsewhere. The restriction is on the business account and follows it.
• Confusing it with quality limiting, which restricts volume on a healthy account rather than the account itself.

Frequently asked questions

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