Technology Miraj Islam October 2, 2026 0 Comments

“I feel almost sick”: Meta deleted 20 years of memories belonging to a woman; then his AI closed his case without allowing him to appeal

Meta closed a woman’s Facebook and Instagram accounts without prior notice
Closed accounts contained 20 years of ‘digital memories’
The woman was unable to contact a human and was forced to use AI chatbots.

What would you do if you lost your Facebook and Instagram accounts along with all the photos, posts and memories they contain? That’s the prospect facing one unfortunate woman, a situation made even worse by the actions of Meta’s AI chatbots.

When Jasmine Ault checked her phone in the middle of the night, she received a notification saying her Facebook and Instagram accounts had been permanently deactivated, taking with them 20 years of personal data and contacts.

Ault attempted to contact Meta to rectify the situation, but found himself going from pillar to post and unable to get a resolution. In fact, Ault found herself completely locked out of Meta’s customer service and could only speak to an AI chatbot who couldn’t fix her. Even after paying for expedited service, Ault was unable to reach a human.

An opaque and indifferent system

(Image credit: Shutterstock / mundissima)

This is not the first time we have seen a case like this. Social media is flooded with reports of people being wrongly banned from Meta platforms without any means of recourse; There’s even a subreddit dedicated to it.

With Meta implementing AI on its platforms, situations like this are likely to continue. Many people have accused AI moderation tools of incorrectly flagging user accounts, which could be one of the causes of the unrest.

Part of the problem is the opacity of Meta’s actions. While Ault received a message saying that his account had been banned for violating the platform’s rules, he was never informed what specific rules had been violated or how. She told CBC she stayed awake for 26 hours straight in an attempt to get her accounts, and all the memories contained in them, back up and running.

However, Ault has not been able to resolve the situation. Speaking to CBC, he said: “I find it almost disgusting that they just think, ‘We can just close these people’s accounts, they can’t reach us or talk to us,’ and they’re people’s lifelines. They’re people’s memories. They’re people’s everything.”

If you’re worried something similar could happen to you, it might be worth downloading your Facebook and Instagram data for a backup. You never know when Meta might send everything to the digital incinerator and leave you stuck with an unfriendly AI chatbot.