On August 8, Paige Hartman attempted to log into Facebook and was met with a message stating her account had been disabled.
"At first, I thought it was like a hack or spam," Hartman said.
Her daughter Macie, whose account was linked to Hartman's and set up with parental controls, was also denied access. After investigating, the family discovered their accounts had been suspended for allegedly "sharing, chatting, or planning something sexual with a child."
"I was flabbergasted. I didn't understand why it was doing that," Hartman said.
Hartman later learned that it was Macie's account that had triggered the suspension. Because their accounts were linked, five Facebook and Instagram profiles were disabled, including Macie's business account used to sell homemade bracelets.
"I would see all her pictures; nothing that she posted was anything that was alarming," Hartman said.
"She has a good following that she's made over the last two years or so, and now it's just, it's devastating," she added.
Hartman appealed the suspension online.
"I got an email that said, 'We reviewed your account, and you still don't follow the rules. Your account is now permanently disabled,'" she said.
Frustrated, Hartman contacted the Investigative Team for help.
"You think you are doing the right thing with parental controls. OK, you want to have a Facebook or an Instagram page, let's link it here so I can have a little control. Now I have none," Hartman said. "I realized I have none, and Meta has all of it."
Meta did not directly respond to inquiries.
However, in August, our ABC sister stations in Los Angeles and San Francisco reported similar incidents involving users whose accounts were erroneously linked to predatory behavior. Meta stated at the time that it was using a combination of human reviewers and technology to identify and remove offending accounts, but acknowledged that mistakes had occurred.
"I am still hopeful we can get back everything we lost," Hartman said.
After our email to Meta, Hartman and Macie suddenly saw their suspended accounts restored one by one.
"I just wanted to say thank you so much for all you guys did to help me and my mom get our accounts back," Macie said in a video message. "I really appreciate it and now my business is back up and running."
Meta said it has not seen evidence of a significant increase in incorrect enforcement of its rules and continues to implement teen safety controls to make its platforms safer for younger users.