For Madison Archer, a passionate entrepreneur, it was an infuriating roadblock. All of a sudden, after nine years of focused effort on building her Instagram account to build her business, it was shut down. The suspension was a result of a post made on June 14. Meta said that she had violated their community standards around child sexual exploitation and abuse. Archer, firmly denying these allegations, found herself grappling with the consequences of an automated system that she suspected played a significant role in the decision.
Ziegler’s case demonstrates the drastic consequences Meta’s actions can have. Both her business and personal Instagram and Facebook accounts were subjected to the same punishment. Though she tried to contest the decision, Archer woke up one day to an email notifying her that her account had been permanently disabled. Frustrated by the lack of human interaction, she began calling Meta staff members directly to try and get assistance. Despite her valiant efforts, her success was marginal at best. As a result, she turned to a third-party service in an effort to recover her account before all was lost.
Struggles with Meta’s Automated System
Archer’s nightmare started when Instagram suspended her account without warning, which left her confused and seeking answers in an unfamiliar process. The notice of termination email from Meta falsely claimed that she had shared child exploitation material, which she strongly asserted that she had not. As you might imagine, the fallout was ugly. Then Instagram disabled her account, at which point Facebook — which is linked to Instagram, of course — moved to disable her account, preemptively suspending it.
In her quest for answers, Archer tried multiple times to reach Meta’s support team. She soon learned that she had reached her “maxed-out” limit of contacts. In retaliation, she was given a short ban from trying to get any more help. This left many wondering how effective the support system Meta was promoting truly was.
“When I did manage to talk to someone, I was always met with the same answer: that it’s a separate team and that I need to wait for the system to cool down and then hopefully I’ll be given another chance to re-appeal.” – Madison Archer
In fact, Archer believed her account’s suspension was mostly due to algorithms—fueled automatic actions—rather than human decision-making. That’s where she started to break down the challenges with automated systems. In social media systems like Instagram, accounts can be disproportionately penalized through arbitrary patterns rather than content.
“Even if your account is innocent, but for some reason has a lot of these signals associated with it, it might be automatically picked up by one of these algorithms.” – Minhee Choi
Financial and Emotional Toll
The consequences of the suspension went well beyond lost likes and shares. It was a very real financial hit on Archer’s firm. Additional attempts to recover her accounts led her to an imposter who pretended to be a representative from Twitter. The scammer then promised remote recovery services and she was defrauded out of $1,500. This new experience only added to her frustration and sense of helplessness in going up against Meta’s complex and mysterious machinery.
From the very beginning, Archer knew the importance of her digital footprint. She quickly created a backup Instagram account, but like many others, struggled to regain her following. Instead of 11,000 followers and over 1,000 posts, she found herself back at square one with only 2,000 followers. Once she lost that contract, the emotional toll of this loss was tangible as she thought back on her path.
“I genuinely had to rebuild a community of 11,000 followers and over 1,000 posts.” – Madison Archer
Archers relief was palpable when she was finally able to access her original business account. She kept her eyes peeled for plants that could become problematic down the road. The possibility of waking up one day and no longer having her account again weighed heavily on her mind.
“The fear of losing it again still sits heavy,” – Madison Archer
Call for Transparency and Accountability
This state of affairs has generated huge public outcry. This case raises significant questions regarding the ways that social media companies—including Meta—suspend accounts and handle appeals of suspensions. Advocates and researchers alike have called for greater transparency into their algorithms and decision-making processes.
“That’s why it’s so important that the public be informed about algorithms that make decisions that shape users’ everyday lives,” said Dr. Shaanan Cohney. He acknowledged counterarguments, including those focused on user privacy and security, but said that recognizing these processes helps to empower users.
“You could say that the public should have a right to know what’s in these algorithms because it can impact people pretty deeply because of the way in which these platforms are integrated into our lives.” – Dr. Shaanan Cohney
In light of these challenges, Meta has heard the pain of users such as Archer. The company has made many public statements about their serious commitment to increasing safety on their platforms. A spokesperson stated:
“We take action on accounts that violate our policies, and people can appeal if they think we’ve made a mistake.” – Meta spokesperson
Many of these users remain unconvinced by Meta’s support systems. Continuing their fears that in an automated, cookie cutter, process, an important nuance of an individual case might be missed.
