Changes also appear to have impacted beer, spirits, and some non-alcohol related businesses
Last week wine, beer, and spirits-related businesses received unwelcome news. Meta notified business owners that their pages would no longer be recommended by Facebook’s algorithms, decreasing reach and revenue.
This change appears to have affected, at minimum, hundreds to potentially tens of thousands of businesses. Wineries, retailers, and other related businesses in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and California confirmed that they had been impacted. A business owner in Denmark noted that they had also been affected. (Editor’s note: Northwest Wine Report also received the notification.)
The changes, at present, do not appear to have impacted Instagram, which Meta also owns. Many businesses, however, rely on Facebook’s algorithms for promotion.
“My business page lost recommendations and we’ve only be live for a month, and I operate in a fairly niche community, so this really hurts,” one impacted Reddit user said.
While the preponderance of businesses that reported being affected were in the wine, beer, and spirits industries, owners of gaming and certain sports Facebook pages also reported being impacted. Several people noted that cannabis-related businesses recently experienced a similar change.
The news that Facebook would no longer be recommending these businesses’ pages was delivered via email and Facebook notification. The email stated that the business owners’ pages would no longer be recommended because they “didn’t follow the rules” and that the content didn’t comply with “Community Standards.”
The email itself, however, only added to the confusion. The sender address and text of the email made it appear as if it were phishing. However, subsequent Facebook page notifications conveying the same information seemed to add legitimacy. Others, meanwhile, thought that Facebook had been hacked.
The email from Facebook stated that page owners could request a review. However, links provided no means for doing so. Neither did Facebook’s Help Center.
“[I] clicked links, tried to find instructions, nothing,” one page owner said.
Adding to the confusion, many users reported a Facebook page status that said, “Good news: no violations to show.” This was despite Facebook also telling users that they were “suspended” from being recommended for violating Facebook policies.
“There was nothing specific listed as to why,” one business owner said of why their page would no longer be recommended. Some Facebook page owners reported spending hours investigating the issue. Others paid consultants to look into the change.
Facebook’s notification also had an Orwellian tone, with the company deferring responsibility for its actions. “Our technology found your content doesn’t follow our Community Standards. As a result, our technology took action,” the notification said.
One Reddit user with Meta Verified reported communicating with an agent via chat. The agent said that the company needed to diminish the promotion of certain products due to new regulations imposed by several governments. Northwest Wine Report was unable to confirm this. Meta’s press office did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
Overall, it’s unclear what might have led to the change beyond, potentially, age restrictions on people being able to legally consume alcohol. However, Facebook has existed for over 20 years, and restrictions on alcohol have been in place considerably longer.
Meta’s page about Facebook recommendations states that it restricts “Content that promotes the use of certain regulated products, such as tobacco or vaping products, adult products and services, or pharmaceutical drugs.” However, this does not appear to be a recent change.
Meta has a history of making algorithm changes that negatively impact businesses. The company has also become largely opaque about its changes, with Meta’s platforms increasingly seeming as if human beings are no longer involved or perhaps even in charge.
In a best case scenario, Facebook made a mistake that it will correct. In a worst case scenario, Facebook will no longer be recommending wine, beer, and spirits related business pages. This will mean that these businesses will no longer see organic growth in their pages and will have to pay to advertise to do so – assuming that will still be allowed.
If the latter is true, it will have a substantial negative impact on a multi-billion dollar industry. The wine industry specifically is already navigating through a myriad of challenges.
Whatever happens next, Meta caused a considerable amount of confusion and consternation due to the limited amount of information it provided and the questionable manner in which the change was conveyed. All business owners were left to do is wonder, why?
Editor’s Note: Read subsequent articles about this issue.
Where the Facebook page recommendation suspension issue stands (1/27/2026)
Facebook shows signs of life (sort of) with page recommendation issue (1/18/2026)
Meta’s silence on page recommendation suspensions deafening (1/16/2026)
On Facebook page recommendations (1/15/2026)
What’s going on at Meta? (1/14/2026)
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I’m so glad to see this article. Thanks, Sean! We got one of those emails, too. I thought it was phishing until I saw the same notification in the app. I had the same experience – totally unable to figure out any explanations or any processes for resolving the issue, none of the links made sense, and the system eventually said there was nothing wrong. What the heck?!?!? I’ve been on the fence about continuing with Facebook (and social media in general). This may be the final decision for our winery. Too much trouble for too little benefit.
The email sure looked like phishing. Until the Facebook notification came. It’s all very strange and unclear what exactly is going on at present.
Thank you! We spent a couple hours researching the message we received and possible fixes without success. Nothing on our business page was found to be in violation. Facebook has helped us grow our business and not sure of it’s future impact. I wish they would have prepared users for this change. They too have likely benefited from the advertising we have done as well as use our follower/likes to target for other purposes.
We received the same notification from FB, thought it was a fake, phishing perhaps! We’re in the Finger Lakes Wine region! Who do they think they are?
I’m based in New Zealand and spent hours on my Saturday night trying to investigate what grave and moral Meta sin I had committed. Your article has confirmed for me that it wasn’t just my business page. Thank you! Really appreciate it.
Quite welcome! Sorry on the wasted hours. You are among many who did!
Same thing affected us. Thank you for this article and bringing it to our attention. Misery loves company I suppose. It angers me that there is no response from anyone at Facebook, and I submitted 3 complaints.
thank you for posting this- My brewery received an email saying we were in violation, however all we do is post information about the happenings of the brewery. I thought it was a phishing situation and would not click on the link provided. FB has gotten absolutely ridiculous, you never know what to believe with all the emails you get. Thank you for posting this- it explains a lot and tells me to prepare for a change.
We received the same notice and had the same issues researching a solution. Facebook continues to drop unexplained bombs like this, then they hide behind their lack of support, so you’re left with no recourse and no answers. Hopefully, this time is different, but I suspect we’ll all be sitting here months from now with no fix and no explanation.
This is META bowing to the Trump administration.
I found this blog from Lunabean helpful: https://www.lunabeanmedia.com/facebook-page-recommendation-suspension/
Interesting that this hit the same week the new Dietary Guidelines were announced. Coincidence?
Exceptional article from Lunabean. Thank you, Katie!
Moi je 4 page Facebook la où je publie des extraits de films séries de 20sc me Facebook à suspendu tous les recommandations de mes pages. Je ne aucune infraction ni restriction vraiment je ne comprends plus Facebook
I’m so sorry. Many businesses have been negatively impacted by the company’s recent algorithm errors.