For nearly two decades, Facebook was an integral part of Aliza Rosen's daily life. Having joined in 2007, her account was a digital archive of her career in Los Angeles podcasting and television, filled with photos, friends, and vital connections. That all ended abruptly in March this year, when a cold, automated message from Meta informed her that her account had been suspended for allegedly creating a fake Instagram profile—an account she could not find and insists never existed.
The Descent into a Support Black Hole
Rosen's attempt to rectify the error quickly revealed a stark reality: contacting a human at Meta for help was impossible without first paying for a verified account. 'That was the beginning of my descent into Meta's customer service nightmare,' she stated. She is among tens of thousands of users globally who report being suddenly locked out of personal or business profiles, then left stranded by automated systems.
In desperation, Rosen paid the $11.99 monthly fee for a verified account to appeal the suspension. This only led her into a frustrating loop of automated messages. 'I went through two or three different bots to have them send me the same link to report a hacked account. You have to fill out the information and it just sends you in a loop of nothing,' she explained to the Daily Mail. Despite providing IDs and screenshots over months, she made no progress.
A Lucrative Black Market for Account Recovery
With official channels proving useless, some users resort to drastic measures. Rosen was quoted between $3,000 and $5,000 by an independent consultant who claimed to help recover accounts. The consultant allegedly stated the high fee was necessary to 'pay them under the table' to reach a human at Meta. This points to a significant underground economy exploiting Meta's support failures.
This black market is not without precedent. In 2022, Meta fired or disciplined more than two dozen employees and contractors accused of improperly accessing user accounts, sometimes allegedly for bribes, as reported by The Wall Street Journal. For Rosen, it felt like her digital life was held hostage. 'It's just disgusting to me that one of the biggest companies in the world is doing this,' she said, furious at losing almost 20 years of memories.
Systemic Failure and the Fight for Digital Rights
The scale of the problem is vast. An online petition titled 'Meta wrongfully disabling accounts with no human customer support' has garnered over 51,000 signatures. It describes a 'widespread, systemic failure' that has erased businesses, destroyed livelihoods, and severed connections to years of memories and vital communications.
Will Jennings, who runs a consultancy helping people recover accounts, confirms the crisis. He notes that even with verification, users join 'a line of a million other people.' He charges $350 per hour, with most clients being businesses whose income depends on their accounts. Jennings argues the core issue is a lack of investment in customer support. 'Unless you're a billion dollar advertiser... it's not going to affect their bottom line,' he said, criticising Meta's 'utilitarian' blanket policies that harm legitimate users while targeting bad actors.
Meta, which boasts over 3 billion users worldwide, did not respond to a request for comment from the Daily Mail. For Aliza Rosen, and countless others, the outcome is a painful acceptance of permanent loss, highlighting a critical failure in the stewardship of our digital lives by one of the world's most powerful tech giants.
