Meta falsely accuses Gold Coast business owner of child exploitation and suspends her accounts after she posted a video of her dogs
Rochelle Marinato, the founder of Pilates World, has spent 12 years building her brand which sells Pilates reformers and equipment.
But the single mother of four's business quickly crippled after she posted a video of three dogs looking out of a window on her personal account on June 28.
Ms Marinato received an email from Instagram which stated the post breached community standards on 'Child sexual exploitation, abuse and nudity'.
Her account was suspended, as was Pilates World's business account, due to its association.
'I received an email from Meta letting me know my account had been suspended … There were no humans in the video,' she said.
Ms Marinato appealed the suspension, but it was assessed by Meta AI and denied before both were permanently disabled.
Pilates World vanished from Instagram's search, the account couldn't be tagged or found by customers and sales dropped by 75 per cent.
'Honestly, we rely so heavily on social media. It's such a critical form of marketing for small business, for visibility and brand recognition and sales,' she said.
Ms Marinato said she emailed Meta 22 times and requested a human reassess the situation but only received generic responses.
Her solicitor also sent a letter to Meta's head office in California and Sydney but is yet to receive a response.
As a last resort, the business owner turned to a third party to recover the accounts.
'We did pay them, and I thought it was probably a scam, but at that point, I was so desperate, business was being impacted so significantly that I was willing to take the risk, and it worked, and we got our accounts back,' Ms Marinato said.
While the accounts have been restored, Ms Marinato estimates the outage has cost her $50,000 and the brand's reputation has been bruised.
'It's really heavy, actually, to think that is something that's going to be associated with my business name and with my digital footprint. It's really, really scary, and all because of a mistake by AI',
'So it's impossible to know what meta will find a breach and what it won't, because that video was of three dogs. There was no humans in the video. So it's almost impossible to avoid in the future,' she said.
Ms Marinato is among thousands of impacted users online by Meta's tech failure.
A petition with more than 30,000 signatures is calling on the social media company to stop wrongful account bans and offer human support.
In a statement to Sky News, A Meta spokesperson said, 'We're always working to improve the enforcement of all our policies to help keep our community safe,'
'We haven't seen evidence of a significant increase in incorrect enforcement'.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Sydney Morning Herald
4 hours ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
Could artificial intelligence change rugby league forever?
Pressed on specifics, Driussi was diplomatically vague: 'We're exploring multiple AI applications, but competitive advantage comes from execution, not just ideas. The technology helps us analyse information and identify patterns that might otherwise be missed.' What makes the Bulldogs' AI adoption particularly intriguing is Driussi's other role as CEO of Quantium, an Australian artificial intelligence and advanced analytics company. The firm works with major Australian companies, such as Woolworths, Commonwealth Bank, Telstra and Qantas. The connection provides the Bulldogs access to world-class AI expertise that would typically cost NRL clubs millions of dollars to develop themselves. While Driussi is careful not to discuss any formal arrangements, the potential for knowledge transfer is obvious. The 'Family Club' previously revealed it used AI to identify Jacob Preston during his recruitment from the Roosters' pathways system, suggesting the technology has been instrumental in some of their personnel decisions. AI's influence on sport was one of the topics discussed at the NRL's Business of Sport Conference in Las Vegas at the University of Nevada, just before this year's season-opening matches at Allegiant Stadium. The headline speakers were Driussi and Paul Devlin, the latter the global strategy leader for betting, gaming and sports technology at Amazon Web Services. Devlin, who has held high-performance roles at the Brisbane Broncos, South Sydney, Parramatta and Melbourne Storm, said AI would transform the sporting landscape. 'We see AI as absolutely revolutionary, and we think it will impact every area of business in the future,' Devlin says. 'So everybody should be experimenting with it right now, so that was kind of the key message that came out of that NRL event ... AI is going to improve every area of business, but it is really clear on the insight generation from the data side of it in a sport like rugby league on talent identification, load monitoring, safety of the games through simulations, as well as the fan side of sport as well.' Several NRL clubs are already dabbling with AI. One leading head coach, speaking on the condition of anonymity to protect the club's intellectual property, said that AI had the potential to help analysts wade through reams of data to come up with a couple of key takeaways when preparing for an opponent. 'That's where I see the next step in world sport, how AI can save you time in identifying those trends so you're not wasting time doing it yourself,' the coach says. 'The advantage you get is saving man-hours, so you actually spend less time on computers and more with the players. 'You can see the information that's relevant; missed tackles is the most outdated stat because there's no context to it. And completion rates; seven of the top-10 completing teams didn't make the finals last year.' Here's a practical example of how AI is being used. One club found the best way to beat the Storm is to limit their time in possession. If you can restrict them to less than 23 minutes and 25 seconds with the football – they average 26 minutes and 36 seconds – you have an almost 100 per cent chance of winning. Not easy to do in reality, but it's useful information. While most NRL teams focus heavily on pre-contact metres – the distance gained before first defensive contact – to build momentum, a different focus is required to beat Canberra. AI found the Raiders were uniquely driven by post-contact metres, those tough yards gained after contact. Limit those metres, and you can stop the Green Machine. Canterbury's embracing of AI reflects a broader transformation sweeping through professional sport worldwide. American sports leagues are leading the charge, with the NFL processing more than 500 million data points per season through its Digital Athlete system, reducing player injuries by 700 missed games since 2023. Major League Baseball has implemented AI for pitching analysis and injury prevention, while the NBA uses machine learning for player load management and game strategy optimisation. English Premier League clubs are using AI for recruitment: Brighton's system identified Moises Caicedo before his eventual £115 million ($240 million) transfer from them to Chelsea, while Liverpool's partnership with Google DeepMind has produced tactical analysis tools that club experts prefer over traditional methods 90 per cent of the time. The secrecy surrounding Canterbury's AI implementation is understandable given the competitive implications; NRL clubs are notoriously protective of innovations that might provide advantages. The technological investment aligns with the Bulldogs' recent restructure. The blue and whites are constructing a $50 million centre of excellence at Belmore and have significantly expanded their pathways programs, including taking over the Fiji Silktails program. 'We're building for long-term success,' Driussi says. 'That means investing in the best people, the best facilities and the best technology available to us.' Bulldogs chief executive Aaron Warburton confirmed the club's commitment to innovation. 'We're always looking at ways to improve our operations and give our players and staff the best possible tools to succeed,' Warburton says. 'Technology is certainly part of that equation.' Loading The club's return to finals football last year, after missing the post-season for eight seasons, has been attributed to improved recruitment, player development and coaching. However, the role of AI in this transformation remains largely hidden. Given the global AI sports market is tipped to grow from $1.2 billion to nearly $30 billion by 2032, getting in early could be the key to success. Already, rivals are playing catch-up to Canterbury. For a club that has endured wooden spoons and years of mediocrity, the Bulldogs are marrying old-school values with cutting-edge technology. Whether that translates to premiership glory remains to be seen, but the Bulldogs are betting heavily that the future of rugby league will be shaped by artificial intelligence.
The Age
4 hours ago
- The Age
Could artificial intelligence change rugby league forever?
Pressed on specifics, Driussi was diplomatically vague: 'We're exploring multiple AI applications, but competitive advantage comes from execution, not just ideas. The technology helps us analyse information and identify patterns that might otherwise be missed.' What makes the Bulldogs' AI adoption particularly intriguing is Driussi's other role as CEO of Quantium, an Australian artificial intelligence and advanced analytics company. The firm works with major Australian companies, such as Woolworths, Commonwealth Bank, Telstra and Qantas. The connection provides the Bulldogs access to world-class AI expertise that would typically cost NRL clubs millions of dollars to develop themselves. While Driussi is careful not to discuss any formal arrangements, the potential for knowledge transfer is obvious. The 'Family Club' previously revealed it used AI to identify Jacob Preston during his recruitment from the Roosters' pathways system, suggesting the technology has been instrumental in some of their personnel decisions. AI's influence on sport was one of the topics discussed at the NRL's Business of Sport Conference in Las Vegas at the University of Nevada, just before this year's season-opening matches at Allegiant Stadium. The headline speakers were Driussi and Paul Devlin, the latter the global strategy leader for betting, gaming and sports technology at Amazon Web Services. Devlin, who has held high-performance roles at the Brisbane Broncos, South Sydney, Parramatta and Melbourne Storm, said AI would transform the sporting landscape. 'We see AI as absolutely revolutionary, and we think it will impact every area of business in the future,' Devlin says. 'So everybody should be experimenting with it right now, so that was kind of the key message that came out of that NRL event ... AI is going to improve every area of business, but it is really clear on the insight generation from the data side of it in a sport like rugby league on talent identification, load monitoring, safety of the games through simulations, as well as the fan side of sport as well.' Several NRL clubs are already dabbling with AI. One leading head coach, speaking on the condition of anonymity to protect the club's intellectual property, said that AI had the potential to help analysts wade through reams of data to come up with a couple of key takeaways when preparing for an opponent. 'That's where I see the next step in world sport, how AI can save you time in identifying those trends so you're not wasting time doing it yourself,' the coach says. 'The advantage you get is saving man-hours, so you actually spend less time on computers and more with the players. 'You can see the information that's relevant; missed tackles is the most outdated stat because there's no context to it. And completion rates; seven of the top-10 completing teams didn't make the finals last year.' Here's a practical example of how AI is being used. One club found the best way to beat the Storm is to limit their time in possession. If you can restrict them to less than 23 minutes and 25 seconds with the football – they average 26 minutes and 36 seconds – you have an almost 100 per cent chance of winning. Not easy to do in reality, but it's useful information. While most NRL teams focus heavily on pre-contact metres – the distance gained before first defensive contact – to build momentum, a different focus is required to beat Canberra. AI found the Raiders were uniquely driven by post-contact metres, those tough yards gained after contact. Limit those metres, and you can stop the Green Machine. Canterbury's embracing of AI reflects a broader transformation sweeping through professional sport worldwide. American sports leagues are leading the charge, with the NFL processing more than 500 million data points per season through its Digital Athlete system, reducing player injuries by 700 missed games since 2023. Major League Baseball has implemented AI for pitching analysis and injury prevention, while the NBA uses machine learning for player load management and game strategy optimisation. English Premier League clubs are using AI for recruitment: Brighton's system identified Moises Caicedo before his eventual £115 million ($240 million) transfer from them to Chelsea, while Liverpool's partnership with Google DeepMind has produced tactical analysis tools that club experts prefer over traditional methods 90 per cent of the time. The secrecy surrounding Canterbury's AI implementation is understandable given the competitive implications; NRL clubs are notoriously protective of innovations that might provide advantages. The technological investment aligns with the Bulldogs' recent restructure. The blue and whites are constructing a $50 million centre of excellence at Belmore and have significantly expanded their pathways programs, including taking over the Fiji Silktails program. 'We're building for long-term success,' Driussi says. 'That means investing in the best people, the best facilities and the best technology available to us.' Bulldogs chief executive Aaron Warburton confirmed the club's commitment to innovation. 'We're always looking at ways to improve our operations and give our players and staff the best possible tools to succeed,' Warburton says. 'Technology is certainly part of that equation.' Loading The club's return to finals football last year, after missing the post-season for eight seasons, has been attributed to improved recruitment, player development and coaching. However, the role of AI in this transformation remains largely hidden. Given the global AI sports market is tipped to grow from $1.2 billion to nearly $30 billion by 2032, getting in early could be the key to success. Already, rivals are playing catch-up to Canterbury. For a club that has endured wooden spoons and years of mediocrity, the Bulldogs are marrying old-school values with cutting-edge technology. Whether that translates to premiership glory remains to be seen, but the Bulldogs are betting heavily that the future of rugby league will be shaped by artificial intelligence.
News.com.au
4 hours ago
- News.com.au
‘We should be worried': From peanuts to paper, Australia's manufacturing industry is in crisis
Australia no longer makes much of anything at all — and the few industries we do have left are rapidly circling the drain. From cars and steel to clothing, paper, glass and now even peanut butter, the long decline of Australia's domestic manufacturing industry seemingly claims a new casualty every other week. The numbers behind the headlines are stark. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), in the year to June 2024, 5136 established manufacturing businesses — meaning those which had been in operation for at least five years — closed down. National employer association the Australian Industry Group warns more up-to-date numbers will be even more dire. 'Australian manufacturing as a sector slipped into recession last year and is one of the weakest performing industries in Australia today,' AI Group chief executive Innes Willox said in a statement. AI Group on Tuesday released new research highlighting the dire situation faced by Australian manufacturing as a result of 'soaring energy and input costs, skills shortages, trade risks and productivity'. 'Australian manufacturing and its almost one million employees face deepening risks unless urgent economy-wide reforms are undertaken to return the industry to growth and boost its falling productivity,' Mr Willox said. 'We should be worried. Manufacturing directly employs 930,000 people, generating over 12 per cent of our exports and 8 per cent of capex investment despite being only 5 per cent of GDP.' Mr Willox said cost pressures on the sector were 'excessive', with input prices having risen 37 per cent in the five years since the pandemic, outstripping inflation of 22 per cent. 'They are paying 48 per cent more for gas than they were in 2019, threatening the viability of energy-intensive branches of manufacturing,' he said. 'We are seeing an increase in plant closures or reduced activity in key economic sectors due to energy cost pressures.' Skills shortages are also taking a toll, with 61 per cent of trades and technician roles in the country currently difficult to fill. Trades account for 28 per cent of the manufacturing workforce. 'We also need to urgently address declining productivity in manufacturing,' Mr Willox said. 'Labour productivity in the sector has declined by 3.7 per cent over the past decade and overall productivity is down by 1 per cent. The malaise of declining productivity makes it harder for employers to deliver sustainable wage increases, and it weakens our international competitiveness at the very time trade disputes are under extra competitive pressure.' Treasurer Jim Chalmers will host an economic reform roundtable in Canberra next month bringing together political, corporate, union and community leaders. Mr Willox said the gathering would be an opportunity to 'begin a clear reform path around the issues of energy, workforce, productivity and international competitiveness'. AI Group has previously warned Australia's 'unsustainable' taxpayer-funded jobs boom is masking critical weakness in private sector employment. Nearly one in five workers in Australia is a government employee. Last year, 80 per cent of all new jobs created were either in the public service or the 'non-market' sector — government-funded industries like education or healthcare, largely through the ballooning National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS). Here are some of the victims of Australia's manufacturing crisis. Peanut butter Last week, Bega Group announced the closure of the 100-year-old Peanut Company of Australia (PCA), blaming 'sustained financial pressure' and ongoing annual losses of $5-10 million. PCA and its predecessors have been based in the Queensland town of Kingaroy, dubbed the Peanut Capital of Australia, since 1924. A phased shutdown of PCA's facilities in Kingaroy and Tolga will take place over the next 18 months, with up to 150 jobs at risk. Bega acquired PCA in 2017 but said it had 'not been able to establish a sustainable business model' despite a 12-month strategic review and several attempts to sell the business. The company said the shutdown comes amid growing challenges in the Australian peanut industry, including import competition, rising costs, falling production and better returns from alternative crops. South Burnett Mayor Kathy Duff said it was a 'sad day' and 'devastating news for our region'. 'It has rocked our community, as Kingaroy is the home of peanuts and the silos are an iconic part of the region's history — that is why they are heritage listed,' she said. Bega said it would continue to operate facilities in Crestmead and Malanda, along with its existing distribution network in Queensland. Cars Nearly a century of car manufacturing in Australia officially came to an end in October 2017 with the closure of Holden's Elizabeth factory near Adelaide, following Toyota and Ford out the door. Mitsubishi had already closed its Australian plants in 2004 and 2008. High local costs and rising competition from cheap imports made Australia's car industry unsustainable, and the refusal of the federal government to continue propping up manufacturers with millions of dollars in subsidies was the final nail in the coffin. Then Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull insisted it was simply due to 'changes in market taste' towards SUVs and small cars, and denied the federal government was to blame. 'People stopped buying the sedans being made in Australia,' he said. 'The manufacturers who've progressively closed their operations in Australia have made it clear it's not because of a failure of government subsidies.' The car industry had argued that no country could sustain an automotive manufacturing base without some combination of tax incentives, import tariffs or government assistance. 'The Australian market is too small and the industry cannot fully exploit economies of scale,' Professor Abbas Valadkhani from Swinburne University of Technology wrote in 2016. 'It is very difficult to compete when labour costs in some Asian countries are only one-fourth of that of Australia.' Tyres Bridgestone, Australia's last tyre manufacturer, finally rolled out the door in 2010 after 45 years. The Japanese tyre giant blamed the closure of its Australian and New Zealand factories on 'international competitive forces' that had made the operations 'no longer viable'. Around 600 jobs were lost at the Adelaide plant, with another 275 in Christchurch. 'As the last tyre manufacturer in Australia and New Zealand, we have all worked hard over many years to avoid today's decision,' former Bridgestone Australia senior executive director Andrew Moffatt said at the time. 'However, the unfortunate reality is that Bridgestone Australia Ltd. can no longer commercially justify the continued operation of these facilities. We are proud of the fact that we have managed to keep these two manufacturing facilities open for so long and have provided employment and economic benefits to so many people over such a long period.' US-based Goodyear had announced the closure of its last Melbourne factory, South Pacific Tyres, two years earlier. The company also blamed Australia's high costs, saying the move would save it around $US35 million ($54 million) a year. 'Going forward, our efforts will be focused on increasing production of high-value-added tyres in low-cost operations to support growth in these segments in Asia-Pacific markets, including Australia and New Zealand,' Goodyear chairman and chief executive Robert J. Keegan said at the time. Glass Oceania Glass, Australia's last manufacturer of architectural glass, collapsed into insolvency earlier this year after posting a $1.2 million annual loss. The Melbourne-based company had supplied glass for homes and offices since 1856. 'Our glass is featured in many of Australia's most iconic buildings, including the Australian Parliament House,' its website noted. Oceania Glass, which employed 260 people, had previously complained to the federal government's Anti-Dumping Commission it was unable to compete with cheaper imports from China and Thailand, after tariffs were removed during the pandemic. Australian Workers' Union Victorian secretary Ronnie Hayden warned in February that there would be a 'tsunami of cheap products dumped in Australia' if the commission took too long to investigate complaints. 'If we don't give the Anti-Dumping Commission more powers and more resources, then we are not going to be ready to deal with this, and there'll be a lot more factories closing down in the future,' Mr Hayden told the Herald Sun. 'It's glass but it's also like steel will be next. The steel industry are on the knees with the amount of steel that's been brought into the country, when we know we can make it here.' Clothes Australia once had a thriving clothing and apparel manufacturing sector, but those jobs have long since moved overseas to factories in Asia with only a handful of niche or specialist producers remaining. The dismantling of Australia's protectionist tariff system beginning in the 1980s all but wiped out local industry, resulting in thousands of job losses as iconic names like Pacific Brands' Bonds and Berlei closed down their factories one by one. In 1985, the textile industry employed 20,300 people while clothing and footwear manufacturing supported 71,900 jobs, according to the ABS. At the time, imports only accounted for 25 per cent of the clothing sold in Australia. Today, local manufacturing employs fewer than 1000 workers, and less than 5 per cent of Australian clothing is made in the country. 'Over the past decades, clothing and textiles manufacturing has declined to around 1.5 per cent of Australia's manufacturing output, as activities have been offshored to countries with cheap labour,' the Australian Fashion Council (AFC) said in a 2022 report. 'However, with increased automation, clothing and textiles can become more capital intensive, positioning Australia as a potential textiles manufacturing powerhouse, particularly for high-quality goods.' The peak body noted that as a result of Covid, many Australian brands were 'now looking to manufacture locally to deliver vertical, sustainable and de-risked supply chains'. Paper Australia no longer makes its own white paper. Opal Australian Paper, a subsidiary of Japanese paper giant Nippon, was forced to cease white paper production at its Maryvale mill in Victoria's Latrobe Valley in December 2022, leading to 200 job losses. The company had been devastated by court decision a month earlier which crippled its ability to make paper. Government-owned timber business VicForests lost a Supreme Court case which found it was not doing enough to protect endangered wildlife including two possum species, forcing it to scale back timber harvesting in parts of rural Victoria. VicForests was a massive supplier for Opal Australian Paper and the company was unable to find a suitable replacement to continue producing white paper. Opal announced a further 220 job cuts across Australia and New Zealand last year. In a memo to staff obtained by the ABC, the company blamed 'a series of unplanned challenges' including Covid and rising energy costs, as well as 'market disruptions' from the cessation of white paper production that were 'continuing to severely impact Opal's financial performance'. The Maryvale mill, one of the Latrobe Valley's largest employers, still manufactures brown paper products. Steel The Whyalla wipe-out may still arrive, just a few years later than forecast. Australia's $29 billion steel industry is effectively on life support, after decades of decline in the face of rising costs and competition from Asian producers. BHP's Newcastle Steelworks, which opened in 1914 and employed up to 16,000 people at its peak, closed in 1999 in what was, at the time, the biggest-ever blow to Australian industry. While the broader industry employs some 110,000 workers, today there are just two steel producers, BlueScope's Port Kembla plant in NSW and the troubled Whyalla Steelworks in South Australia. Whyalla was built by BHP in 1941, spun off as OneSteel in 2000 and renamed Arrium in 2012. It collapsed into administration in 2016 before being rescued by British billionaire Sanjeev Gupta's GFG Alliance in 2017, but promised upgrades to the plant did not eventuate. The South Australian government again forced the Whyalla Steelworks into administration in February, citing concerns about underinvestment by GFG and the plant's financial viability. Administrators KordaMentha revealed in March the steelworks was losing $1.5 million a day, totalling $319 million in the seven months to January, before its collapse leaving $1.34 billion in debts. A sale process is currently underway, with reports BlueScope has been granted a rare right-of-last refusal in the deal. BlueScope, the country's largest steelmaker, was last year handed nearly $140 million by the federal government to upgrade its Port Kembla plant, as part of a $200 million rescue package that included $63 million for Whyalla. In 2017, a parliamentary inquiry into the future of Australia's steel industry warned that rising power prices were affecting the viability of steel and other energy-intensive industries. 'The committee is concerned that without remedial measures and a tenable bipartisan plan to reduce energy costs, the future of the Australian steel industry remains in doubt,' the report said. Plastics Australia's largest plastics maker, Qenos, collapsed into administration last year, blaming multimillion-dollar losses amid soaring gas prices. The Chinese-owned chemical manufacturer produced plastic resin products extensively used across household and industrial packaging. Qenos employed 700 people and operated plants at Altona in Melbourne and Botany in Sydney, which ceased operations earlier in 2023. At the time, AI Group's Mr Willox warned the decision to place Qenos into administration 'reflects the erosion of key pillars of Australia's industrial landscape — and risks causing much more'. 'A whole range of industrial and commercial products depends on the flow of resources and materials between oil and gas producers, refiners, chemicals businesses like Qenos, intermediate manufacturers of products like food and beverage packaging, and downstream users like food processors,' he said. 'Any house in Australia will have multiple polyethylene products in it. The closure of the ExxonMobil refinery in Victoria in 2021, driven by age and the pressures of the pandemic, dealt a blow to Qenos and many other businesses in the industrial ecosystem.' But Mr Willox said 'most of all, the long-term rise in natural gas prices eroded Qenos's competitiveness and its prospects'. 'Prices rose over the past decade because of the takeoff of LNG exports, the erosion of Southern gas production, and the lack of adequate planning to manage these long-foreseen developments,' he said. Other Australian plastics and chemical manufacturers have gone under or moved operations offshore in recent years. Adelaide-based wheelie bin maker Trident Plastics — one of the largest custom moulders in Australia — collapsed in 2023. Rising gas prices and increasing international competition were also cited by Dow Chemical in its decision to shut its Altona plant in 2019.
