Latest news with #businessloss
Daily Mail
15-07-2025
- Business
- Daily Mail
Dog picture posted to Instagram costs an Australian woman $50,000
An Australian small business owner says she lost about $50,000 after Instagram suspended her accounts over what she describes as an innocent photo of three dogs. Rochelle Marinato, managing director at Pilates World Australiarecently received an email from Instagram's parent company Meta stating her accounts had been suspended because the image breached community guidelines relating to 'child sexual exploitation, abuse and nudity.' The photo had been mistakenly flagged by an AI moderator, which confused the image of the dogs with those of children. She appealed the decision and sent 22 emails to Meta, but received no assistance from the global tech giant, which owns Instagram, Facebook, Threads, Messenger and WhatsApp. Ms Marinato told Daily Mail Australia the suspension had a serious financial impact on her business. 'When it first happened I thought it was just a silly mistake and we'll fix it and it might take an hour,' she said. 'We were in the middle of the end of financial year sales for the business so it was pretty horrendous timing. 'I appealed and pretty quickly I received notification from Meta that my accounts were permanently disabled with no further course of action available.' Left with few options, Ms Marinato said she was forced to take an unconventional route and pay a third party to get the accounts reinstated. 'I spent three weeks researching how to get my account back. In that time our revenue dropped by 75 per cent,' she said. 'For a small business like us, social media is critical. Everything just stopped when our accounts were suspended. 'In losing my account, all my Instagram advertising was gone. It had a really significant impact on the business because we rely so heavily on social media.' She claims the sudden disappearance from the platform had a direct cost to her bottom line. 'I did a basic comparison to last year, just so I could be sure of the figures, and it cost me about $50,000,' she said. But beyond the financial loss, Ms Marinato said she was outraged by the implication behind the platform's suspension notice. 'It's a horrible, disgusting allegation to have thrown your way and to be associated with. People will think we've done something wrong to lose our account,' she said. 'It's scary that AI has this power and also gets it this wrong. We could be on a slippery slope.' Despite losing $50,000, Ms Marinato said she was now only focusing on getting her business back to where it was before Meta's AI intervened. 'I don't think anyone's been successful in recoupling any loss and that would be an extra expense. I just need to keep working hard and hope this doesn't happen again,' she said. Ms Marinato claimed her story was just one of many and that the problem was widespread. She also said it was impossible to talk to a human at Meta to explain her situation. 'I couldn't get a human to look at it. Clearly any human that looks at this photo is going to know it's completely innocent,' she said.
Yahoo
22-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Former Corrie star says her 'heart is broken' after she 'lost everything' in devastating fire
A former Coronation Street star has said her 'heart is broken' after her beauty business was destroyed in a devastating fire. Georgia May Foote, who played Katy Armstrong in the ITV soap, has been working as a nail technician for the last four years, and recently revealed her business was one of a number affected by a huge blaze at a storage unit in Middleton. In a post on Instagram, Georgia told fans she has 'lost everything in the fire'. She added the unit is now set for demolition, saying it is 'the hardest situation for many of us to be in' and thanking generous members of the public for their donations and messages. READ MORE: M6 traffic: Lanes CLOSED following crash READ MORE: Road closed as FIVE people rushed to hospital following crash "Unfortunately the building is now about to be demolished, my heart is broken," she wrote. "I was to first of all say how sorry I am to anyone who has lost even a single item in that fire. I can't imagine how those who have things that can't be replaced feel. I'm so sorry." The actress previously posted on the social media app sharing an appeal on behalf of others who had lost their livelihoods in the blaze. In her latest post, she continued: "I posted my last reel as an appeal to help us all get back to work as soon as possible, without us working we can't buy stock, without stock we can't work. It's the hardest situation for so many of us to be in. With our whole place of work and tools gone and families to feed and bills to pay. Join the Manchester Evening News WhatsApp group HERE "I aimed to raise 10k not thinking for a second we would bet this support! But here we are passing 10k! "There are 12 of us affected by this who work in the beauty industry and every penny will be evenly distributed to help us get back where we were. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Georgia May Foote (@georgiamay112) "Thank you for everything that has been donated too!"She added a plea to ask people to continue donating to those who had lost businesses in the fire. "PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE keep donating. We have all lost thousands each and this will help us so much. Links in bio! "If you have another business that has been affected from this fire and you want me to help you with your fundraisers please get in touch." Georgia shared a link to a JustGiving page where people can donate to those affected by the fire.
RNZ News
26-05-2025
- Business
- RNZ News
'Massive' hay shed fire cost Canterbury company up to $1.5 million
Photo: Supplied / Quigley Contracting A Canterbury business owner is absolutely gutted after more than half of his winter feed went up in flames. A fire destroyed more than 12,000 bales of hay as it tore through two sheds at Quigley Contracting in Winslow, about 10 kilometres southwest of Ashburton, on 14 May. Dozens of firefighters tackled the blaze and work continued on operations for four days until what was left of the bales was cleared, covered and capped in a large pit. Quigley Contracting owner Andrew Quigley said it was the most significant loss to the business since it started 22 years ago. He first received a call about the fire shortly before midnight on 14 May. "It was massive," he said. "It's sort of scary - those first few hours, just not knowing whether it is going to spread or another puff of wind is going to come up, and the risk to residential properties around us was probably the biggest concern. Photo: Supplied / Quigley Contracting "We were trying to save every bit of stock we could, and we were moving bales of straw around with our own machinery, just trying to eliminate the risk of further spread. "It was a very, very scary experience." The fire started in one shed and spread to the other shed after burning for 30 to 40 minutes, Quigley said. The damage cost the business between $1.2 milllion and $1.5 million. "It's a significant and huge loss to us," he said. "A lot of the product was pre-sold across New Zealand to different customers. It's probably 50 to 60 percent of our stock that we had on hand lost." Quigley was grateful other contractors and farmers had come forward with offers of feed after the fire. "We're working through that at the moment, but it's looking like we'll have enough product to be able to look after our customers," he said. Photo: Supplied / Quigley Contracting It was not the first time a fire had hit his business with the same site affected four years ago, Quigley said. "It started in a shed, sort of similar. Starting at around two-and-a-half thousand bales and spread," he said. After that fire, water curtains were installed in the sheds and had prevented this fire from being worse. "Those water curtains in the shed worked well; we saved... two sheds that probably would've gone up as well," Quigley said. "So obviously I'm happy with the improvements we've made, but absolutely gutted with all the systems and processes we've put in place that similar events happened." While the cause of the fire had not been determined, Quigley said he suspected it was caused by spontaneous combustion, which was the cause of fire four years ago. Fire and Emergency said the investigation was ongoing.
CBC
23-05-2025
- Politics
- CBC
Can one judge overrule Trump?
The U.S. Supreme Court is deciding whether federal judges should have the power to block government policies. Andrew Chang explains how this case could reshape the balance of power. Then, how Canada Post lost $3B in six years.
ABC News
14-05-2025
- Business
- ABC News
York Peninsula's 24-hour blackout cost businesses more than $1m
Yorke Peninsula businesses lost $1.06 million during a widespread 24-hour blackout in March, according to fresh research. Regional Development Australia (RDA) surveyed affected traders who reported a combined lost revenue of $566,000 due to payment systems going offline, while stock losses reached up to $264,000. Of the 70 respondents, just one reported being covered for outages in their insurance policy. Thirty-five were not, and nine were still awaiting decisions from their provider. The March 14 outage saw more than 20,000 properties go dark because of dust pollution and extended dry conditions across South Australia, according to energy operator ElectraNet. RDA Yorke and Mid North chief executive Daniel Willson said many businesses were "caught out" by the lack of insurance coverage for blackouts and encouraged owners to shift policies if necessary. "Retail trade businesses suffered, those that have perishable stock," Mr Willson said. "They've got some fairly stringent food safety requirements to observe," he said. "When they can't rely on their fridges and freezers to keep running … they have to cut their losses to avoid impacting the health of consumers. "We did have quite a few residences and households get in touch because they were frustrated that they hadn't had better coverage and service. "There was some pretty concerning stuff — families who had to drive around in cars to keep babies in air conditioning, quite a few people who had temperature-sensitive medication who had to drive back to Adelaide to replace their medication." Mr Willson said a full report will be released in the coming weeks. So far, SA Power Networks, ElectraNet, and the state government have indicated compensation will not be offered to businesses. South Australians can claim $100 a year for an outage lasting more than 20 hours, but it only applies to supply issues and not transmission faults, which caused the March blackout. Independent MP for Narungga, Fraser Ellis, said he would lobby the government to expand the Small Claims Scheme to include outages. "I haven't got a yes or no, but I will keep trucking away at it. "Recently the government extended [the Small Claims Scheme] to voltage variations, so they appreciate the need for it, but in this case, it's the same outcome with just a slightly different cause." Transport and Infrastructure Minister Tom Koutsantonis said the government would give Mr Ellis' proposal "due consideration and consider [its] implications". Mr Koutsantonis previously said that SA Power Networks' equipment was not at fault. Yorke Peninsula residents reported several rolling, localised blackouts in the days leading up to the major outage. In the aftermath, ElectraNet said it proactively monitored power equipment for dust accumulation and blamed low rainfall across South Australia, which otherwise would have washed away excess build-up. On Tuesday, SA Power Networks spokesperson Cecilia Schulz told ABC Radio Adelaide that helicopter and ground patrols had begun monitoring 55,000km of power lines to detect faults leading up to the next bushfire season. Ms Schulz said the March outage was not caused by insufficient patrolling. "It is the sheer expanse of the problem over the Yorke Peninsula, the number of poles and conductors that do have insulator pollution, and the ability of our crews to get to all of them and wash them," Ms Schulz said. "We've had to go through this process of identifying the areas of the network that are causing the problems and manually washing them, but it hasn't been possible to do that for the whole peninsula."
