[April 2026] A ban wave is occurring on X: a thorough explanation of the timeline and causes

Since around April 5, 2026 (JST), a large number of accounts have been suspended on X, and a so-called "ban wave" is occurring.

In this article, I will explain in detail the specifics and causes of this latest ban wave on X, as well as how it differs from the ban wave in March.

Details of the ban wave

Since around April 5, 2026 (JST), reports have been coming in one after another on X saying that follower counts suddenly dropped and that accounts people used to see all the time had disappeared, leading many to believe that a so-called "ban wave" is occurring.

This ban wave appears to have started around April 3 (JST), with especially large numbers of accounts being suspended on April 5.

In this ban wave, there have been many reports of follower counts suddenly dropping even when users' own accounts were not suspended.

This kind of drop in follower count is a phenomenon often observed when follower accounts are suspended or locked, and it is believed that follower counts are decreasing because many accounts are being suspended.

Causes of the ban wave

The exact cause of the ban wave has not been determined, but I believe it is being caused by the aggressive suspension of spam accounts targeting Japanese accounts.

On March 28, X's head of product, Nikita Bier, said that Japan has more reply spam than any other country and is being actively targeted by foreign monetization groups.

He also said that X is actively suspending these kinds of spam accounts every day.

In addition, because X has begun automatically translating posts using Grok, cross-language interaction has become easier, making Japanese accounts, which have many active users, even more likely to be targeted by spam.

For these reasons, it is possible that the ban wave is occurring because X has been aggressively suspending spam from monetization groups.

Differences from the March 2026 ban wave

A ban wave also occurred on X in mid-March.

As for the ban wave that occurred in March, the cause was that a new spam filter had mistakenly classified some accounts as spam for about 12 hours, and Bier said that 99% of the accounts suspended by mistake had been restored.

A summary of the X account ban wave in March 2026: a thorough explanation of how it happened and what caused it

In mid-March 2026, a large number of accounts were suspended on X in what was widely referred to as a "ban wave." In this article, we will explain in detail what happened in the March 2026 ban wave, how it unfolded, and why it occurred.

March 15, 2026

In this way, the previous ban wave was caused by a malfunction in a new spam filter, but in light of Bier's statements mentioned above, it is possible that this ban wave is being caused not by temporary false positives, but rather by X becoming more aggressive about suspending spam accounts.

Bier has repeatedly emphasized that AI-generated spam is having a major impact on X, and he has said that as AI becomes more sophisticated, X is investing heavily in upgrading its tools.

In a briefing for the UK Parliament, X disclosed that it suspended approximately 800 million accounts related to platform manipulation and spam over the 12 months of 2024, and in February, it indicated that it was strengthening its detection of automation and spam and would continue to strengthen it further going forward.

With advances in AI, there has been an increase in cases where websites are crawled at high frequency to collect training data, as well as in the use of AI agents to operate websites.

X is believed to be strengthening spam detection in order to prevent increased server load and spam caused by AI.

Update on April 10: The ban wave will continue

Bier has suggested that the ban wave will persist.

Additionally, X is identifying and suspending 208 bots per minute, and that number is increasing.

X may continue its ban wave; head of product says 208 bots are being removed per minute

Nikita Bier, X's head of product, updated his X account and posted, "Pour one out tonight for the reply bots. This week is going to hurt 🪦," suggesting that the so-called "ban wave" currently occurring on X may continue. According to Bier, X is currently identifying and suspending as many as 208 bots per minute, and that number is increasing.

April 9, 2026

What should you do if you are suspended?

If your account remains suspended and you believe it was suspended by mistake, you may be able to file an appeal through the confirmation screen or form displayed when you log in.

Also, please be careful not to create a new account just because you were suspended.

On X, when an account is suspended, creating a new account or repurposing an existing account for the purpose of evading that suspension is prohibited, and even related accounts judged to be operated by the same person may be suspended.

Creating a new account after being suspended could instead make the situation worse, so I do not recommend it.

Conclusion

Since around April 5, 2026, a large number of accounts have been suspended on X, and a so-called "ban wave" is occurring.

The exact cause of the ban wave has not been determined, but it may be due to the aggressive suspension of spam accounts targeting Japanese accounts.

X's head of product, Nikita Bier, has said that the company is actively suspending spam from monetization groups targeting Japan.