BALTIMORE — A Harford County woman lost access to her social media accounts along with photos of her family. She’s tried contacting Instagram and Facebook, but so far, no response.
WMAR-2 News Mallory Sofastaii also reached out to social media giant Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, but hasn’t yet heard back. She tried contacting the company via email, Twitter, even reaching out to Meta employees on LinkedIn.
“It was like I didn’t exist, everything was gone,” said Lauren Dooley.
Dooley first tried logging into her Instagram and learned it’d been disabled for not following community guidelines. Then her Facebook account, which was connected to her Instagram, was also disabled.
“I’m a mother of 3. I bake bread, I look at house design,” said Dooley. “I’m not political, I don’t get into other people’s business, it’s just something for me to enjoy and share. That’s all.”
She checked her email to see if she’d been sent instructions on how to re-activate her accounts, instead, she saw someone attempted to change her passwords.
“Every now and then I will go back and see if I can reset my password and it’s no user found at all,” Dooley said.
Years of family photos have all disappeared.
“A lot of memories, a lot of treasures. My youngest graduating kindergarten or my middle daughter graduating from 5th grade, our old house, our dog that recently passed away. Little things like that that I’ll never be able to get back,” said Dooley.
She couldn’t find a way to chat or call either platform and submitted the account recovery form several times.
“We see how Amazon works, and I’m a big supporter of Amazon, it’s just so easy to contact somebody, so easy to get in touch with somebody, there’s always someone that’s at your disposal. And with Instagram and Facebook, it’s nothing. And that I’m just shocked. It’s shocking,” Dooley said.
On Twitter, Instagram acknowledged an issue last Monday.
Many users responded that their accounts had been suspended.
It’s unclear if this is what caused Dooley’s account to be disabled, or when it’ll be resolved.
“I just thought it was a safe place to save all those little moments and stuff. Some people might use Shutterfly, and things like that. It’s just something I started doing and ultimately thought I’d have forever,” said Dooley. “There is an error, there is something going on, needs to be rectified, I just want to get my things back that’s all.”
While Meta hasn’t responded to Sofastaii’s emails, there have been a handful of responses from hackers claiming to be able to restore accounts for a price. One person requested $75 via Cash app. WMAR-2 News hasn’t yet verified if this is a scam or the real deal.
According to a Meta employee, the company has a tool for employees to fill out a ticket for people they know personally and can vouch for. Otherwise, users need to fill out a form through the platform's help desk.
You can better protect your accounts by creating a secure password and adding two-factor authentication.
Try using a phrase as a password. Longer passwords are usually more secure. And avoid using common words like “password.”
Click here to see Facebook’s tips on making a strong password.
If your account has been disabled, here’s more information from Facebook on restoring your account.
