My Social Media Accounts Got Hacked: A Shocking Experience

I woke up on January 5th to find multiple emails from Meta, i.e. Instagram and Facebook, that I had posted nefarious content and that my accounts had been deleted. At first, I assummed the emails were Spam. I quickly found out that they were real and my accounts were wiped off the face of the earth.

My first thought was, “Did I post a travel photo of a kid with no shirt on and was I banned for that?” I came to find out that the “hacker” posted multiple photos of child exploitation, human trafficking, as well as “Graphic Violence” and “Dangerous Organizations and Individuals.” Is that terrorist activity?! “They” posted both photos and videos. Although I couldn’t see the images “they” posted, I was shocked. I’m a tride and true “rule follower” and I was being punished for not following the rules. This was such a slap in the face!

I quickly hit the “appeal” button which took me to an AI system to decide if the account did belong to me. I had to upload my identification and shoot a short “selfie” video. This is where the loop hole comes in! Since I did in fact prove to them that I was the owner of the social media accounts, they concluded that I was also the one who posted the illegal photos and videos! There is no appeal to prove you were hacked! Therefore, my appeal was denied…by the AI!

Several thoughts swirled through my head over the course of the next few days. What exactly was posted on my accounts? Should I call the FBI to notify them of terrorist activity? Would my Global Entry and TSA accounts be deleted also? Would I be arrested? What about my 6000+ followers, how do I contact them? What about all the helpful posts that I saved and cataloged by type?

I reached out to my computer tech, but he was unable to fix my problem. I reached out to my daughter, and luckily she had a friend who worked at Meta. He was gracious enough to plead my case before the bosses and get me reinstated. It took a few weeks. I was beyond grateful. But that’s not where the story ends!

During those two weeks, I tried to pretend that going without social media would be good for me. I told myself that it would be a nice lifestyle change. But, I missed my friend’s posts. I missed sharing my photos with my friends. I missed my business account with my fellow street photographers as inspiration. I missed the stories I watched which were amusing, humorous, and fun! I also panicked as I realized that I didn’t have a way to communicate with certain friends whose phone numbers I never had…we only DM with each other. A lot of those are friends of my deceased son! I was devastated.

Once my accounts were restored, I decided to be clever and download my list of Instagram followers…just in case. The download just lists Instagram tags, no emails. I couldn’t find a way to download my list of Facebook friends. I bought expensive software to erase my name off the dark web. I turned on two-factor authorization on my accounts and changed all my passwords. I vowed never to click on anything that looked like spam (lots of Facebook articles.)

Two short months later, the first week of March, it happened again! Some more illegal posting! Same deletion of all my accounts. Same turn down of my appeal. I didn’t have the guts to bother my daughter’s Meta friend again. I was filled with despair. I decided to bite the bullet and start a brand new Instagram account. What I didn’t realize is that when you are new to Instagram, they limit how many friends you can have and how many messages you can send…because they want to weed out the possibility of your being a “bot.” They limit you to a handful of friends a day. I’m not doing the math, but I figure it will take a very long time to try and notify over 6000 people! And do I really want to take on that chore? Could I hire someone to do it? Is it worth it? I haven’t tried to get a new Facebook account, I’m too frustrated right now.

So, that’s my story. There no way to call or email Instagram and Facebook. Even the “chat” feature to report problems has AI answering your inquiry. I wonder how many other people have had this happen to them. Why wouldn’t Meta have a option for “I was hacked”? (You can report if someone is using your identity to impersonate you….but not that someone hacked your account.) I also wonder, why would the hacker post those things to my account? Who are they targeting? Who is seeing their illegal posts? What’s the action they seek? Is it a ransom or blackmail situation to get cash from someone? I’ll never know. For now, I’m mad at Mark Zuckerberg.

My new Instagram: @BlueHairedBlondeRobin