Starting on July 14, in Western Australia small business owners reported harsh financial and emotional losses after the Meta shutdown took place which accused account owners of posting child exploitation material, leading to the suspension of their Facebook and Instagram pages.
Several owners told ABC they were “horrified” when Facebook and Instagram’s parent company, Meta, removed their business pages, with personal accounts often caught in the crossfire. For some, when the Meta business accounts closed, their owners went weeks without a connection to their customers.
A Margaret River-based make-up artist, Samantha Enticknap, said her social media shutdown was notified to her with an email citing “sexually explicit content and nudity with children.”
She was stunned to speak about the Meta account controversy.
“I have a make-up page with pictures of make-up on women. There’s no nudity,” said Enticknap, “it was horrifying to see this accusation and it really affected both my business and myself emotionally.”
Government response to Meta shutdown
Fitness business owner Cindy Kempton, operating across Kimberley and Pilbara, has been offline for six weeks straight due to Meta shutting down accounts, causing Kepmton to lose “tens of thousands of followers” and experiencing a sharp drop in enquiries. Meta claimed her account contained child abuse material something she calls “completely untrue.”
“We very rarely, if ever, put children up on our Instagram because of the regulations surrounding children,” she said. “It just caused so many issues, not only for us but also for our communities and our business.”
Both women described Meta’s appeals process as slow and impersonal, relying heavily on automated systems. ABC understands how the Meta notice of Facebook account termination uses a mix of human review and AI to enforce its policies, but the company maintains there has been no spike in wrongful suspensions.
“People can appeal if they think we’ve made a mistake,” a Meta spokesperson said.
The Small Business Development Corporation (SBDC), a Western Australia’s government agency, warns owners to diversify their online presence.
“It’s akin to building a house on someone else’s land,” Director Caragh Waller said. “Your house is your business, so make sure you own the land.”
Call for Better Meta Shutdown Heads’ Up
Following the Meta account closure, the company went ahead and restored Ms. Enticknap’s accounts after ABC’s investigations, Ms. Kempton’s pages remained offline. Both say they want clearer explanations and a more accessible review process regarding the Meta rules and regulations.
“We’re just small businesses trying to make money,” Ms. Enticknap said. “Just give us an explanation of what we’ve done and a better review process.”
Meta account suspended in western Australia had many wrongful accusations against small businesses in Western Australia, showing just how swiftly the social media giants’ mistakes can change lives, leaving owners financially devastated and emotionally shaken.
In a matter of hours, years of work and customer trust can be erased by an automated decision, while damaging and deeply shameful allegations such as links to child exploitation cling to a business’s name long after accounts are restored.
The reputation stain is typically permanent, and the absence of a reaction system places victims in an unstable online environment, without their ability to clear their names or restore their business accounts. To many, it is not a commercial loss, but no Meta alternatives were given to the business owners to maintain their work journey and their income.
For most Western Australian small business owners, the Meta shutdown has proved to be a witness to too much reliance on third-party websites where control can slip away at the tip of an AI finger.
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