For nearly two decades, Facebook was an integral part of Aliza Rosen’s everyday routine.

She first signed up in 2007, and over the years, her profile became a treasure trove of photos, friendships, and professional connections from her career in podcasting and television production based in Los Angeles.

However, in March of this year, Rosen was blindsided by an impersonal automated message from Meta, notifying her that her account had been suspended for allegedly creating a fake Instagram profile.

She attempted to locate this supposed account, but it was nowhere to be found.

When she tried to contact someone at Meta to resolve the mistake, she realized that speaking to a real person was impossible without subscribing to a verified account service.

‘That was the beginning of my descent into Meta’s customer service nightmare,’ Rosen said. 

She is one of tens of thousands of users worldwide who claim to have been unceremoniously locked out of their personal or business accounts, to then find it virtually impossible to contact customer support for help. 

Some have even taken the drastic measure of paying thousands of dollars to independent contractors in a desperate attempt to unlock their crucial business contacts and treasured memories trapped in their accounts. 

In March this year Aliza Rosen suddenly lost access to her Facebook account 

Rosen discovered that in order to appeal the suspension, she would have to pay $11.99 a month for a verified account. 

In desperation she forked over the cash, only to end up in a loop of messages which kept repeating the same thing. 

‘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 told the Daily Mail. 

Rosen tried to explain that her blocked account was linked to an email address which she no longer had access to, but she was told there was nothing that could be done. 

She spent months trying to gain access, offering up IDs and screenshots to try and prove who she was, but getting nowhere. 

‘I really needed it for work. A lot of my work, including researching people and background stuff is all on Facebook. That was very frustrating,’ she said.

Then Rosen was recommended to a consultant who had helped an old coworker get his account back — but it would cost between $3,000 and $5,000. 

She said she was told by the consultant that the fee was so high as in order to get to a human being at Meta, you have to ‘pay them under the table.’ 

Meta has over 3 billion users on its platforms worldwide (Pictured: Founder Mark Zuckerberg)

In 2022, Meta fired or disciplined more than two dozen employees and contractors who it accused of improperly taking over user accounts, in some cases allegedly for bribes, The Wall Street Journal reported. 

In some cases workers accepted thousands of dollars in bribes to access locked accounts, according to people familiar with the matter and documents viewed by the outlet.

‘It felt like my account was being held hostage, and now I have to pay a consultant to get an account back that a scammer took from me and Meta is not going to fix,’ Rosen told the Daily Mail. 

A quick internet search reveals a slew of companies offering to recover lost or locked Facebook accounts.

Rosen was not willing to pay the sum, and has accepted that she will likely never gain access to her account again. She is furious that almost 20 years of memories are gone for a security breach which she had nothing to do with. 

‘It’s just disgusting to me that one of the biggest companies in the world is doing this to people when it’s completely counterintuitive to the whole point of Facebook,’ she said.

The problem has become so widespread that an online petition, entitled ‘Meta wrongfully disabling accounts with no human customer support,’ has over 51,000 signatures. 

Worldwide, Meta has over 3 billion users across its platforms. 

Rosen discovered that in order to appeal the suspension, she would have to pay $11.99 a month for a verified Facebook account

‘Across the globe, ordinary users are being silenced by broken systems at platforms like Meta,’ the petition reads. 

‘Journalists, creators, educators, parents, nonprofits and students have lost access to their accounts, communities, and data. Often without warning, without explanation, and without meaningful appeal processes.

‘It’s a widespread, systemic failure that has erased businesses, destroyed livelihoods, and cut people off from years of memories, relationships, and vital communications.’ 

For some, the loss is particularly painful. ‘We have heard from thousands of people: panic attacks, sleepless nights, depression and grief after digital lifelines have been cut,’ it says.

As Meta leaves people hanging, Will Jennings is trying to fill the void. He runs a consulting company which helps people recover lost or disabled accounts. 

‘Most of what I do is hopping on Zoom calls with people and giving them a diagnosis. Because a lot of people don’t know exactly what is wrong, they just know it hurts. I tell them exactly what is wrong and let them know what their options are,’ he said.

For most people the first option is to get their account verified, he said, but even then you are in a ‘line of a million other people.’

Another option is filing legal action and contacting your state Attorney General, but that is also likely to be a long and drawn out process.

Zuckerberg with President Donald Trump at a White House dinner in September

The main way that Jennings is able to help people, he said, is because he has a Meta business partner account from a marketing agency he used to own. ‘This means I have a better or at least more direct customer support line,’ he said.  

Jennings offers a free 15 minute consultation, and then charges $350 an hour for his services.  

Most of his clients are businesses, whose livelihoods are directly impacted if they are locked out of their accounts, and he admits it is much more difficult to retrieve personal profiles.

Jennings believes the problem is that Meta is not sending enough resources to its customer support, which means people are being left in the dark. 

‘If you look at Meta’s stock price, it goes up quarter for quarter every year, and the volume of support cases continues to rise,’ he said. 

‘Unless you’re a billion dollar advertiser coming in with an issue, it’s not going to affect their bottom line.’

A surge in scams has also made an impact, he claimed, and hsd meant that more people are having their accounts shut down unnecessarily.

‘It seems like Meta enforces these blanket policies where it’s kind of utilitarian, where they’re perfectly fine with not helping or shutting down nine good people if it stops the one bad actor.’

Thousands of users have complained about being unfairly locked out of their Facebook accounts and being unable to get in touch with Meta customer support

Jennings claimed there is a ‘whole black market for Meta,’ which would not exist if the company was properly supporting its customers. 

‘There’s a gross underbelly of Meta, and it’s the same situation as any other black market. If you want to make a black market go away, you don’t go arrest the drug dealers, you stop the demand. 

‘If you wanted to stop the demand for people getting their accounts back, you would not take them away in the first place and also give them a proper support channel.’

Jennings said that he never intended to do what he is doing.

‘I had a marketing agency and it was kind of a side hustle helping people get in touch with Facebook support to fix their issues. 

‘Nobody should have to pay, but we’re moving into a point where the problem is getting so bad that somebody needs to fix it,’ he said.

Meta did not respond to the Daily Mail’s request for comment.