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CBC
6 days ago
- CBC
Teacher wrongly accused by Meta of child exploitation gets Instagram account back — and an apology
Social Sharing A high school history teacher in Vaughan, Ont., says she lost access to her Instagram account — and thousands of personal photos, conversations and memories — after the social media platform wrongly accused her of posting material that it said depicted "child sexual exploitation, abuse and nudity." Megan Conte says it took days to get through to a human at Meta, which owns Instagram, to plead her case. But even that didn't result in her account being reinstated, she said. "When I read what I was accused of, I was very hurt. I was very surprised, especially considering what I do for a living," she told CBC Toronto. "And there was no one I could contact — no human." Conte was issued an apology by Meta, the parent company of Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp and Threads, and her account was unlocked hours after CBC Toronto contacted the company to inquire about her complaints. "We're sorry we got this wrong and that you were unable to use Instagram for a while," an email from Meta to Conte reads. "Sometimes we need to take action to keep our community safe." Conte said she is far from alone in her concerns about arbitrary and difficult-to-reverse decisions made by social media moderators. An online petition started by Brittany Watson of Peterborough, Ont., complaining about a perceived over-reliance by social media companies on artificial intelligence tools rather than humans has so far garnered more than 34,000 names from people around the world. Watson launched her campaign after she, too, was banned by Meta in May, for reasons that, she said, are still unclear. After two weeks, the ban was lifted, she said. "Social media isn't just social media anymore. It's now part of daily lives," Watson told CBC Toronto. "Now, they're taking that away without any explanation." She said she's overwhelmed by the international response to her petition. "People are just so frustrated by it." Watson said the point of her petition and an accompanying People over Platforms website is to force more accountability from social media sites. She'd like to see Meta rewire its moderating tools to make them more accurately detect actual wrongdoing online. "I think the robots need to be reset," she said. Both Watson and Conte say they have no proof that AI is behind the mistaken bans and suspensions. A spokesperson for Meta would not comment on how much, or how little, the company's social media providers rely on AI to moderate members' posts. But London, Ont.-based tech expert Carmi Levy says it would be physically impossible for Meta to use humans alone to moderate its platforms. "With over three billion regular users of these platforms, there's no way that Meta could hire enough people in the world to cover everything that gets posted," he said. "Automation is the only way they can make this scale. "It is automation run amok." A Meta spokesperson told CBC Toronto the company uses a combination of people and technology to track violations of its community standards. The company also said it has not noticed an uptick in the number of people whose accounts are mistakenly suspended. "We take action on accounts that violate our policies, and people can appeal if they think we've made a mistake," the company spokesperson said. Conte's problems began July 26 when she received a message from a friend pointing out that her Instagram account was inaccessible. She logged on and discovered a note from Meta that read in part: "Your Instagram account has been suspended. This is because your account, or activity on it, doesn't follow our community standards on child sexual exploitation, abuse and nudity." Even now, Conte said, she has no idea what triggered Meta's suspension. 'Beyond inconvenience' "The accusation is horrifying, offensive and completely false," she told CBC Toronto. "I am a high school teacher and to be associated with such a charge ... has been both traumatic and damaging." Making matters even more confusing, she said, is the fact she hadn't posted anything in a couple of months. "This goes beyond inconvenience," she said. "I lost about 15 years of conversations, memories, business contacts, creative work and social presence. Photos of loved ones, collaborations, messages with friends — all gone in an instant because of a machine's decision." All the lost content was restored when the suspension was lifted. Conte said shutting down her account "feels like a kind of identity theft. It's emotionally exhausting and professionally disruptive." After several days of trying to navigate Meta's complaints process unsuccessfully, Conte said she eventually got through to, she believes, a human via the platform's troubleshooting text messaging tool. But she was only able to access that feature, she said, after paying a fee to verify her mother's Instagram account. Conte said she had her mom's account verified because she believes appeals on verified accounts are taken more seriously by Instagram. However, after a text exchange that lasted more than an hour, she was still not reinstated. Her account was only unlocked by Meta last week, after CBC Toronto's call to the company. At the same time, she received the apology. Levy said people who, like Conte, feel they've been wrongly suspended have few options.
Independent Singapore
03-07-2025
- Business
- Independent Singapore
Meta faces backlash over account suspensions amid mounting user frustration
After Meta's admission that it erroneously suspended many Facebook Groups last week, the social media platform is now under intense scrutiny, especially after it attributed the issue to a 'technical error.' A 'technical error' with real-world consequences According to the latest BBC report, for many users of the Meta platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, the problem goes beyond an anomaly in the system. For many, it means interrupted business transactions, severed social connections, and has led to emotional anguish. Despite Meta's assurances that the issue is being addressed, thousands of netizens have testified to being locked out of personal and professional accounts, without warning or clear-cut explanations. Additionally, many say their efforts to appeal against their account suspensions were met with mechanical replies, leaving them feeling helpless and ignored. From lost income to lost memories Among the most vocal detractors is Brittany Watson, a 32-year-old from Ontario, Canada, who initiated a petition when her Facebook account was abruptly deactivated for nine days. 'Facebook isn't just an app for me,' she told BBC News. 'It was years of memories, connections with family, mental health support groups.' See also Sophie the robot whips up oodles of Singapore noodles Brittany says the psychological impact and the draining experience were serious, and her story has reverberated extensively—over 25,000 people have signed her petition. She disputes Meta's description of the problem as isolated to Facebook Groups: 'There is a problem—it's personal accounts, business accounts, Facebook pages, and Groups.' In the meantime, in the UK, journalist John Dale also could not access his Facebook account, and lost control over a local news group with over 5,000 members. His posts were erased, and he can no longer moderate the group of which he is the sole admin. 'It's frozen in time,' he said, adding that his appeal has so far yielded little information from Meta. No human in sight: AI moderation under fire The absence of customer service and the platform's apparent dependence on AI to deal with content moderation and appeals have come under condemnation. Michelle DeMalo, a digital vendor from Niagara Falls, says she suffered a huge financial hit when her Facebook and Instagram accounts were shut off last month. Though her accounts were restored spontaneously the day after the BBC contacted Meta, she is still traumatised by the torment. 'There is no human being you can talk to,' she said. Sam Tall, a 21-year-old from Bournemouth, went through a similar shutdown of both his Facebook and Instagram accounts. His appeal was discarded within two minutes, which led him to think that no human eyes had read her appeal. 'There is absolutely no way that was seen by a person,' he said. 'All the memories, all my friends—gone.' Meta says it employs a blend of mechanical tools and human assessors to implement its community guidelines. But for many, the lack of transparency and real-time support has left them with more questions than answers, and a growing belief that the tech giant is not listening to them. With Reddit forums busy, social media protests swelling, and some users even contemplating a class action suit, Meta may find this problem won't be so easily fixed by attributing it to a 'technical error.'
BBC News
02-07-2025
- BBC News
'There is a problem': Meta users complain of account shutouts
Meta blamed a "technical error" when, last week, it admitted wrongly suspending some Facebook then, users of the world's most popular social media platform have got in touch with the BBC to say how, for them, it is much more than a technical say they have been shut out of pages that are key to their working lives, while others highlight the digital connections to loved ones that have been well as anger, there is frustration that - despite Meta saying it is fixing the problem - there is often no human to speak to about an issue they suspect is caused by moderation decisions powered by artificial intelligence (AI). They have also described how Instagram accounts have been affected, despite Meta saying it does not have evidence of a problem on its platforms more more than 25,000 people have signed a petition in the last few weeks which says the problem is being experienced across Facebook, Instagram, and forums are dedicated to the subject, many users are posting on social media about being banned by Meta, and some say they plan on taking a class action lawsuit against the social media what people have told the BBC about what it means to them to be locked out of their social media accounts. 'More than just an app' The online petition about this issue was started by Brittany Watson, a 32-year-old from Ontario, in decided to act after her Facebook account was disabled for nine days in May before it was reinstated. She claims her page was cancelled over "account integrity", and Meta has not provided her with any answers as to why."Facebook wasn't just an app for me," she told BBC News. "It was where I kept years of memories, connected with family and friends, followed pages that brought me joy, and found support communities for mental health." When her account was banned, Brittany said she felt "ashamed, embarrassed and anxiety-stricken"."The weight of feeling exiled from everyone takes a pretty strong hold on you," she quickly discovered she wasn't the only one affected - thousands have signed the petition she started."There is a problem - it is personal accounts, it is business accounts, Facebook pages and Groups. I can't believe they [Meta] are only saying it is just Groups."Meta has told BBC News that it takes action on accounts that violate our policies, and "people can appeal if they think we've made a mistake".It has also outlined in detail how it moderates accounts using a combination of people and technology to find and remove accounts that broke its says it is not aware of a spike in erroneous account suspension. 'There is no customer service' Another user who recently lost access to his Facebook account is John Dale, a former journalist who runs a local news group in West London with over 5,000 members. His account was first suspended on 30 May for breaking community standards, and the page he administers has briefly come back twice since has no idea he was the only administrator of the group, he currently cannot approve new posts. Additionally, his own posts have been removed from the group."It's frozen in time, [while] quite a lot of material has been deleted," he told BBC Dale is appealing his suspension, but if he loses his appeal his account will be permanently deleted. He says he has received limited information on why he was banned."There is no customer service," he said. 'My income has taken a huge hit' Michelle DeMalo, who is also from Canada, says she has suffered financially since her Facebook and Instagram accounts were suspended in the middle of June. They were reinstated on Wednesday, a day after the BBC contacted Meta about her runs several pages, with some associated with her businesses in digital marketing, and also uses Facebook Marketplace to buy and sell her accounts are linked, so when her personal Instagram page was suspended for "violating the terms" of a Meta policy, it triggered all of her pages to be suspended."My income's taken a huge hit in the past couple of weeks," she told BBC News from her home in Niagara Falls."People think I blocked them or think something happened to me."Michelle can't think of anything which triggered the suspension, and was worried about the reputational hit as some of her clients can no longer contact struggled to find a Meta employee to take up her case with."There's no customer service. There's no human being you can talk to." AI suspicions Another person left frustrated at Meta's moderation policies and its appeal process is Sam Tall, a 21-year-old from told BBC News that he discovered his Instagram page was suspended last week for breaching "community standards".He decided to appeal, and it was rejected two minutes later - making Sam suspect the process was entirely handled by AI."There is absolutely no way that was seen by a human," he told BBC News."All the memories, all my friends who I can no longer talk to because I don't have them on any other platform - gone".As his Facebook account was linked, that was removed too."No explanation. I'm a bit baffled, to be honest."Sam says it is time for some serious action from Meta - and not just for his sake."If I know it is quite a few people, then there is a chance of Meta waking up and realising 'oh, this actually is an issue - let's reinstate them all.'" Sign up for our Tech Decoded newsletter to follow the world's top tech stories and trends. 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