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BALTIMORE – A Harford County woman has lost access to her social media accounts and family photos. He tried to contact Instagram and Facebook, but so far, there is no response.
WMAR-2 News Mallory Sofastaii also reached out to social media giant Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, but has not heard back. He tried contacting the company via email, Twitter, and even reached out to Meta employees on LinkedIn.
“It felt like I didn’t exist, everything was gone,” Lauren Dooley said.
Dooley first tried to log into his Instagram account only to find it had been disabled for not following social media guidelines. His Facebook account, which was linked to his Instagram account, has also been disabled.
“I’m a mother of 3. I bake bread and I look at home design,” said Dooley. “I’m not involved in politics, I don’t get involved in other people’s work, it’s just something I like and share. That’s it.”
He checked his email to see if he had been sent instructions on how to reactivate his accounts, but instead, he saw someone trying to change his passwords.
“Every time I go back to see if I can reset my password there’s no user found,” Dooley said.
Years of family photos are all gone.
“Many memories, many treasures. My youngest in high school or my middle daughter who just graduated 5th grade, our old house, our dog who recently died. Little things like that I can’t come back from,” said Dooley.
He couldn’t find a way to chat or call a forum and submitted the account recovery form multiple times.
“We see what Amazon is doing, and I’m a big supporter of Amazon, it’s easy to contact someone, it’s easy to contact someone, you always have someone. And with Instagram and Facebook, nothing. And that’s just my surprise. It was a shock,” Dooley said.
On Twitter, Instagram acknowledged an issue last Monday.
Many users responded that their accounts were suspended.
It’s unclear if this is why Dooley’s account was disabled or when it will be resolved.
“I just thought it was a safe place to save these little moments and everything. Maybe some people use Shutterfly, and so on. It’s just something I started doing and eventually thought it would catch on.” I’m still,” Dooley said. “There’s something wrong, something’s going on, it needs to be fixed, I just want my stuff back, that’s all.”
Although Meta did not respond to Sofastaii’s emails, several responses from fans suggested that the accounts could be restored for a fee. One person applied for $75 through a Cashback application. WMAR-2 News has yet to verify if this is a hoax or a real deal.
According to a Meta employee, the company has a tool for employees to fill out a ticket for people they know and can vouch for. Otherwise, users must fill out a form through the platform’s help desk.
You can better protect your account by creating a secure password and adding two-factor authentication.
Try using a phrase as a password. Longer passwords are more secure. And avoid using common words like “password.”
Click here to see Facebook’s tips for creating strong passwords.
If your account has been disabled, here’s more information from Facebook on how to recover your account.
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