Rochelle Marinato, the managing director of Pilates World Australia, was left stunned when her Instagram account was suspended after she posted a video of three dogs online.
The issue started when Meta, Instagram’s parent company, wrongfully accused her account of ‘child sex exploitation’ due to the video.
An “Innocent” Video Causes Chaos
Marinato claims the video was mistakenly flagged by an AI moderator, which believed the dogs in the clip were actually children.
She was notified of the suspension through an email from Meta, which stated that her account had been suspended due to breaching community guidelines related to “child sexual exploitation, abuse and nudity”.
Although Marinato was initially confused, she wasn’t overly worried, assuming the mistake would be sorted out straight away.
A Series of Unfortunate Events
However, the suspension had a severe impact on her business, which relies heavily on social media marketing.
Marinato estimated that the suspension caused her around $50,000 in losses, with her revenue dropping by around 75 per cent.
She described the situation as “damaging,” as customers believed the business had closed or done something wrong to be removed from Instagram.
The experience was also stressful for Marinato, who is the sole provider for her family.
A Call for Improvement
Marinato is now calling on the platform to improve its AI moderation and customer support.
She believes that if she had just been able to speak to a human being, the issue would have been resolved immediately with little impact on her livelihood.