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If Facebook suspended or disabled your account, appeal first by logging in and following the notice. If Facebook keeps its decision, Article 21 of the Digital Services Act entitles you to an independent review: ODS, run by ADR Center (certified by AGCOM, Resolution 501/24/CONS), is free, rules on admissibility within 10 days and issues a non-binding decision within 90.
ADR Center: out-of-court dispute settlement body certified by AGCOM under Article 21 of the DSA, Regulation (EU) 2022/2065.
On Facebook, a suspension usually comes before a disabled account. Facebook's Help Center explains that it may suspend an account if the account or its activity does not follow the Community Standards. You find out by email and, when you log in, from a notice saying your account was suspended. At that point you can appeal from inside Facebook, within a window that varies by region. If you do not appeal in time, or the appeal is not successful, Facebook permanently disables the account, and for severe violations it may disable an account without suspending it first (My personal Facebook account is suspended or disabled). So if your Facebook account is suspended rather than disabled, use the appeal while the window is still open. While an account is suspended or disabled, nobody can see it and you cannot use it.
Many people look for a phone number or an email address to contact Facebook about a disabled account. The route Facebook's Help Center actually describes is the appeal it offers when you log in, with on-screen steps. To see what happened, Facebook points to Account Status: click your profile picture, then Help & support, then Account Status. It shows the status of your profile, of the Pages and groups you manage, and any restrictions (Check your Account Status on Facebook). If the account was hacked or you lost access to your login details, Meta's Account Recovery Hub covers those cases and warns about emails or messages that pretend to be Meta. ODS is not Facebook and is not a Meta support channel: it cannot log into your account or switch it back on. It comes in once your appeal to Facebook is over.
When Facebook disables an account permanently, its own Help Center says you may have the right to refer the decision to a certified dispute settlement body. That right comes from Article 21 of Regulation (EU) 2022/2065, the Digital Services Act: anyone affected by a decision on their account can pick a certified out-of-court dispute settlement body, independent of Facebook, and file the dispute on that body's website. ODS is run by ADR Center, a body certified by AGCOM, Italy's Digital Services Coordinator, under Resolution 501/24/CONS, and works in 16 languages, English included. Before you open a case, find the message Facebook sent about its decision in your notifications, your email or Account Status, and look for "Information for people in the EU". From there Facebook lets you create a reference number that starts with "FB", which the body uses to request information about the decision from Facebook (How dispute settlement bodies work in the EU for Facebook).
Asking ODS to review a disabled Facebook account is free: the ODS form asks for no payment. That follows the design of Article 21 of the Digital Services Act, under which users get the procedure free of charge or for a nominal fee, while the body's fees are charged to the platform, here Facebook. If the decision goes Facebook's way, you do not have to reimburse its costs unless the body finds you acted in manifest bad faith. Facebook's Help Center warns that a dispute settlement body might collect a processing fee; ODS does not. On timing, once your file is complete ODS decides within 10 days whether the case is admissible. The decision on the merits follows within 90 days, the limit set by Article 21, which allows an extension for highly complex disputes. Everything runs online, and the case is decided by independent experts. Facebook covering the fees does not change where they stand: AGCOM certification requires the body to be impartial and independent, financially as well, of both Facebook and its users.
No. An ODS decision about a Facebook account is not binding, and ODS cannot restore anything itself. Article 21 of the Digital Services Act states that a certified body "shall not have the power to impose a binding settlement of the dispute on the parties". Facebook's Help Center puts it this way: Facebook must consider the body's opinion, but is not legally required to follow it. The same goes for you: you are free not to accept the decision. The Act does require both sides to engage in good faith, and the independent experts give written reasons, so the assessment of Facebook's decision is on record. Nobody can tell you in advance how a case will end, and ODS does not try to: each Facebook decision is looked at on its own facts. A review also closes no other door, because Article 21 keeps your right to challenge Facebook's decision before a court at any stage.
To ask for a review of a disabled or suspended Facebook account, you first need to have appealed to Facebook, because ODS steps in after the internal complaint. In the ODS form you give the platform and the reason, your country of residence in the EU, what happened, the date of your appeal to Facebook and the reply you got, the reference code if Facebook gave you one and, if you know it, the Community Standard Facebook says you broke. Then your account details: username, the email you use on Facebook and, if there is one, the link to your profile. You can attach screenshots of the notice, the emails and Account Status. You also add your contact details and your preferred language. Before sending, you confirm that the information is correct and that no other dispute settlement body is handling the same decision, and then you confirm the request from the link we email you.
ADR Center: out-of-court dispute settlement body certified by AGCOM under Article 21 of the DSA, Regulation (EU) 2022/2065.
Last updated: 28 September 2026
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