WhatsApp error 368 (temporarily blocked for policy violations): what to do next

WhatsApp error 368 means WhatsApp has put an enforcement on your account. Meta's error reference lists it under integrity errors with the description "The WhatsApp Business Account associated with the app has been restricted or disabled for violating a platform policy" and points to its Policy Enforcement guide. API responses usually carry the title "Temporarily blocked for policies violations". Every send in scope will fail until the restriction ends or is reversed, so stop your campaigns and find out what happened before doing anything else.

How Meta's enforcement ladder works

Meta's policy enforcement guide says accounts first get a warning naming the policy they broke. If they repeatedly violate the WhatsApp Business Terms of Service, for example by sending spam, misclassifying templates, or operating in high-risk categories such as adult content, alcohol and tobacco, drugs, gambling or unsafe supplements, restrictions follow that gradually increase in length:

Meta adds two important exceptions. Where there is evidence of severe harm, such as child exploitation, scams, terrorism or the sale of illegal drugs, the account is offboarded immediately. And an account that receives excessive negative feedback from users may be limited or offboarded too.

So 368 can mean anything from a short template block to a disabled account. The error code alone does not tell you which; the notice in Business Support Home does.

What the error looks like

Values illustrative:

{
  "error": {
    "message": "(#368) Temporarily blocked for policies violations",
    "type": "OAuthException",
    "code": 368,
    "error_data": {
      "messaging_product": "whatsapp",
      "details": "The WhatsApp Business Account associated with the app has been restricted or disabled for violating a platform policy."
    },
    "fbtrace_id": "AtR4yHk9Wn2QzXb7LmPeC0v"
  }
}

Step-by-step: what to do after a 368

1. Pause all automated sending on the affected account: campaigns, drip sequences and integrations. Every attempt adds a failure and none will get through.
2. Open Business Support Home. In Meta Business Suite, click All tools, then Business Support Home, then Account Overview if needed. Select the WhatsApp account and open the violation.
3. Read the violation in full. Meta says the update contains a summary of the policy violated with a link to it, examples of allowed and disallowed content, any active restrictions and what happens if it happens again, how to avoid it, and how to appeal.
4. Find the cause in your own sending. Match the date of the violation to your campaign and template history. Which template, which list, which number?
5. Decide: appeal or acknowledge. If you believe you complied with policy, request a review. If the violation is fair, fix the cause and wait for the restriction to end.
6. Fix the cause before you resume. Remove the template, clean the list, change the category or stop the product line, whatever the notice describes.
7. Resume slowly, starting with replies to customers who message you and transactional templates, before any marketing.

How to request a review

Meta's guide describes the steps: from Business Support Home, select the relevant WhatsApp account, choose the violation from the list and click Request Review. A dialog opens; add supporting details and click Submit. The request moves to the In Review tab.

The WhatsApp team reviews the appeal against the policy. Meta says the decision is sent through Business Manager and typically takes 24 to 48 hours, and the violation is then either Unchanged or Reversed. If it is reversed, the account returns to its previous status. Meta also warns that not all spam violations can be appealed, in which case you wait until the restriction period ends.

A useful appeal is specific: how the recipients opted in (with the opt-in wording and date), why the template is in the category you chose, and what you have changed. "We are a genuine business" alone rarely moves anything.

368 and its neighbours

A worked example

Arjun runs WhatsApp campaigns for a supplements brand through his agency. After a large broadcast to a purchased list, every send starts failing with 368. In Business Support Home the violation reads as spam with a 7-day block on all messages, and the notice explains that messages were sent to people who had not opted in.

He does not appeal: the list really was bought. He deletes it, rebuilds the audience from customers who opted in at checkout, and waits out the seven days. When the block ends, he restarts with order updates and replies to inbound questions for a week before running a small marketing campaign to the opted-in list. A second violation would bring a longer block or an account lock, so the brand's opt-in process is now written down.

Preventing a 368

• Message only people who opted in to hear from your named business, and honour opt-outs at once. Our guide to WhatsApp opt-in best practices shows wording that works.
• Keep template categories honest. Template misclassification is one of the violations Meta names. See how template categories are decided.
• Check your products against the Commerce Policy before selling them on WhatsApp, especially regulated categories.
• Watch quality signals. Blocks and reports lower your quality rating long before a 368; slow down when it turns yellow.
• Subscribe to the account_update webhook. Meta sends it when an account violates a policy and, when applicable, with the restriction type and duration, so your systems can pause sending by themselves.
• Keep admin details current in your business portfolio, because Meta emails violation notices to all admins.

How Broadchat responds to a 368

Broadchat treats 368 as a sign that the channel cannot send. When a send fails with it, a running campaign stops instead of failing recipient after recipient, and the channel's health is re-checked against Meta. When Meta reports sending as blocked or restricted, the channel shows Meta's reason, and new sends from that channel are refused with a message asking you to fix the issue and then use Refresh status on the channel. A failed message shows the reason "The business account is temporarily blocked for policy violations." Appeals themselves are made by the account owner in Meta Business Suite; no platform can lift a WhatsApp enforcement.

For other codes, see the WhatsApp API error codes cheat-sheet. Agencies that manage many client accounts can watch channel health for all of them in one panel through the white-label program.