Facebook has taken my life from me with its use of AI

Let me start by saying I am a fan of artificial intelligence. It has opened up a whole new world of seeing things from a different perspective and, let’s face it, can make us sound smarter. However, I now believe that the AI used by Facebook is destroying lives. Facebook is inundated with scammers, and it doesn’t seem to stop. For those of us who are genuinely not causing any problems, Facebook has taken away the connection to real-life human support, leaving us in the dark and at the mercy of non-human AI bots. For the first time, I am scared.

I have always been a good person and I also have a very unique name. For half a century, I have experienced the pleasure and pain of having a different name. Pleasure, because it's a great conversation starter for someone as shy as I am. Pain, because it comes with a lot of jokes and assumptions questioning my cultural background and profession. Now, it also means I can’t hide from cyber stalkers. I feel 99% confident that there is not one other person with my real first and last name among the 7 billion people on earth. If people are angry with me, they will find me as I work in the public eye. Being a fairly good person, I don’t think people want to harm me, but you never know.
Years ago, when I got married, my unusual name changed to a different last name. Facebook wouldn't let me change it until I sent them a marriage certificate. Not only that, I suddenly couldn’t use a middle name, which was a nickname my family uses. That seemed excessive with all the “Jenny Anns” and “Chloe the Brave” out there. But alright, I moved on.

 About three months ago, my account was suddenly disabled due to fraud. They said it was because of activity on ad accounts I had. One, I don't even know the last time I used, and the other was for the volunteer organization I did social media for, where we did run ads. We are a philanthropic group raising money for local organizations, and our ads thanked local businesses for sponsoring our fundraiser. The Facebook message said a computer detected the issue, and I could appeal to have a human review it. But it also said that if they agreed it was fraud, they would permanently disable my account, and I couldn't appeal again. I had no idea what the “fraud” was. However, the appeal worked, and I was granted access again.

Does it stem from my name? I have had other accounts before and used a nickname so my real unique name didn't have to be so public for people looking for me. When I tried to change it to my real name, it said my real name is “fake” and I cannot use it. I also recently tried to add friends who are literally family, and Facebook told me I couldn't because it doesn't “appear” that I know them in real life. My own blood family. That AI bot isn’t working.

Let's go back further. In the 1980s, I was a child with a computer connected to what was then called "bulletin boards." Fast forward a few years, I worked as a volunteer for America Online, now known as AOL. I clicked connect, listened to the buzz of dial-up through a phone line, eagerly awaited the “You’ve got mail” notification, and then went to work protecting children from predators in the chat rooms. There is a good chance our friend Mark Zuckerberg may have been one of the very children I protected before he came up with Facebook.

I went from bulletin boards to Prodigy, to America Online, to MySpace, to Facebook, to Instagram, and to TikTok. There were a few other social media networks I opened accounts on, but I had no interest in them.

Today, my life is ingrained in Facebook. This is where I connect with childhood friends, learn of their passing, and attend groups to better my life. It's also where I store digital copies of my childhood and memories of people who have passed away.

Facebook is also part of my job. I use it for side income, volunteer groups, and my real job.

Over a year ago, I finally got hacked. I was miserable for days as I fought to get my account back. It took time, but I did it. Facebook has no way of actually contacting customer service, and previous contact options are now unattainable.

Now, three months later, it has happened again. When I did the appeal, it came back within minutes saying it's still considered fraud, I am done, and there is no appeal. I have a hard time believing a human looked at it that fast, and an explanation would be helpful to know what fraud they are even talking about.

I am both devastated and over it. But truthfully, not over it. That's my passive-aggressive way of saying I am tired and wiped out from this. Now they have taken away my income, my photos, and the only memories I had of my childhood and the people in it. I was able to download my profile photos but not the ones in my albums—all without explanation.

Facebook, Mark, you have brought together an amazing community, but you are also destroying people's lives, livelihoods, and memories. I have given so much in donations to your charities, yet you are cutting me off.

At the very least, give an explanation for the reason you disabled my account. I may be just a number to you, but I am a real person, a good person, whose life you just took away.