Diner gets Facebook account back after Meta ban

A restaurant in Derbyshire has had its Facebook page restored after the owners said it was taken down by Meta.

The 1950s American Diner, in Swadlincote, lost access to its Facebook account - which has 32,000 followers - on 4 March for allegedly breaching Meta's rules on "fraud, scams and deceptive practices".

Owner Cody Chetwynd appealed for help, and South Derbyshire MP Samantha Niblett helped recover the account on Thursday after meeting with Meta.

Meta did not respond to the BBC's inquiries for a comment, but told a committee of MPs it "invested in the right systems" but "it does not always work perfectly".

Chetwynd said the past 20 days had felt like a "huge black cloud", and getting the page back was "the biggest victory".

Chetwynd, who reopened the diner with her husband, Luke, on 17 August 2023, said she struggled to solve the issue without "being able to contact a real person".

"The only 'support', and I use that term extremely loosely, was Meta AI Assist," she said.

"I spent hours trying every avenue, but there was no way to contact a real person.

"I was going over all our posts to try and figure out what could've possibly been flagged as fraud or a scam."

As Meta run both Instragram and Facebook, the restaurant owner paid £26 to become "Meta Verified" on its Instagram, which has 8,000 followers, to try and get her Facebook account back.

Meta Verified is a paid subscription service for Facebook and Instagram that verifies user authenticity and "enhanced support".

Chetwynd said that when she tried to contact Instagram support, she got the message she had "exceeded [her] support chat limit", even though she had "not used it once".

The loss of her Facebook page had a significant impact on trade, with customer numbers dropping by "43.5% over two weeks".

"For a small independent business with overheads to pay, it is detrimental," she said.

"I can't even describe how defeated I felt.

"Our biggest advertising platform was taken away with no warning."

Chetwynd said a friend who owned a balloon business also had her Facebook account taken down for the same "fraud, scams and deceptive practice breach".

"There's so many other businesses out there being failed by Meta and its ridiculous AI systems", said Chetwynd.

Niblett said she was "deeply concerned" when she saw Chetwynd's post about the restaurant's page being taken down.

"It shouldn't take an MP intervening in a very public way at a very senior level in Meta to get action", said Niblett.

"I still had to chase, and was advised 'it can take some time', with no suggestion of timescale.

"Whilst I am delighted 1950s American Diner had their page reinstated two days later, this doesn't solve the issue for so many others who, without rhyme or reason, have their pages taken down, unable to speak to a human.

"Deleting the pages of businesses in this way is one example of where tech and AI is negatively impacting our economy but, more even more importantly, people down."

At the Science, Innovation and Technology Committee on Tuesday, Niblett raised the case with Rebecca Stimson, Meta's UK Public Policy Director.

Niblett said: "Can you imagine the flip side, if we said to a social media platform, 'we are just going to switch your platform off because you have violated community standards', with no explanation?"

Stimson said: "It's a real challenge. I know how people can get very frustrated because we totally recognise the direct impact that would have on a small business.

"We do try and invest in the right systems to try and respond as quickly as possible and give people some additional context.

"It does not always work perfectly, and I accept that."

Committee chair Chi Onwurah said the response was "absolutely unacceptable".

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