ATLANTA — The Facebook and Instagram accounts of these women were shut down by Meta, for good.
The reason given: child sexual exploitation. But these two metro Atlanta moms say there’s no way they would have ever done something like that on their social media.
Channel 2 consumer investigator Justin Gray says they aren’t alone. People across the country are having the same problem.
Everyone agrees keeping illegal filth off Facebook and Instagram is important. But somehow Facebook and Instagram are flagging people who did nothing wrong.
Meta says it permanently disabled Tara Hanover’s Instagram and Facebook pages --her teenage daughter’s, too – over child sexual exploitation, abuse and nudity.
“I am worried because it impacts my work. It impacts my business,” Hanover said.
Melodie Edwards got the exact same message from Meta, her account shut down for child exploitation.
“That’s some pretty heinous accusations, and nothing could be further from the truth,” Edwards said.
For Tara Hanover, it means her business, the Our Town magazine in Cobb County, has no social media footprint, and her attempts to appeal the decision with Meta have gone nowhere.
“You have got to have a person, a customer service department, that you can go to when this happens because there’s no accountability,” Hanover said.
“I would love for them to send me proof. What made them flag my account?” she added.
Edwards said within seconds of trying to appeal the Meta decision, her account was permanently disabled.
“Not only have I never posted anything like that, I’ve never posted on Instagram, not one post.
Hanover and Edwards are not alone.
An online petition that more than 51 thousand people have signed on to asks to “Hold Meta accountable for wrongfully disabled accounts. Fix the AI. Restore access. Provide real support.”
“We are at the mercy of the MetaBots,” Hanover said.
It was her teenage daughter’s account under hers that was flagged.
Hanover originally thought it was a result of cyberbullying from a classmate before learning this was happening to so many others.
“This could be a Meta glitch or this could a backdoor bully. I have no way to know,” Hanover said.
After getting nowhere with Meta, she complained to the Georgia Attorney General’s office.
The AG will reach out to Meta on behalf of consumers, but the AG’s Director of Consumer Protection Shawn Conroy says those companies should be doing better without government getting involved.
“They have a responsibility to do right by the people that are on their platforms, and we would like to see that,” he said.
Hanover reached out to Channel 2 Investigates for help after getting nowhere trying to reach a real person at Meta.
“Even in my issue this month in the magazine, I said, I’m going to thank Metta for giving me a digital break through the holidays so I can enjoy time with my family,” she said.
Channel 2 Investigates reached out to Meta, which said, “We take action on accounts that violate our policies, and people can appeal if they think we’ve made a mistake.”
Friday, they restored all of accounts for Edwards.
Hanover, her daughter and her business Facebook accounts were restored, but her Instagram is still down.
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