CLEVELAND — A Cleveland woman said a major company made a major mistake that forced her to lose business, and she’s not the only one. Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, took down her pages, and she wants others to hear what happened.
"Honestly, my heart is just for kids. I have a heart for kids,” said Halle St. John.
Her alter ego is Halle Bo Bally, a fun character that took years to perfect and to build her business for children to enjoy.
"I read storybooks to children in a very whacky, fanciful, fun way,” said St. John in full Halle Bo Bally character on a promotional video.
THE TERRIBLE ALLEGATION
St. John relied on social media to help her book children’s events across Northeast Ohio, but then she said an unexpected message from Meta came in saying her account was suspended. The reason? Child sexual exploitation.
"I’m telling you, the minute I read that, I was in tears,” said St. John. “I was in tears because for me this is a children’s business that I run, and there couldn’t have been a worse allegation.”
St. John said she knew she did nothing wrong, immediately appealed the suspension through Meta, but got no response. She told us she even wrote a snail-mail letter, but still nothing.
THE FRUSTRATION & LAWSUIT
She was frustrated with no customer service number to call or a human to email. So, she filed a lawsuit in the Cleveland Municipal Court.
"False pretenses, false allegations, defamation of reputation and I said, 'If this is the way I’m going to get my page back, I guess I’m going to do it,'” said St. John.
She told us it was only after suing Meta that she finally heard back from the company, saying it made a mistake and her account was restored.
"So, if this can happen to anyone on any given day, that is a huge problem with Meta that they need to take care of. It’s not OK,” said St. John.
THE PETITION
She’s not alone. St. John signed a Change.org petition alongside more than 52,000 others, saying Meta is “wrongfully disabling accounts with no human customer support.”
Our fellow Scripps news Investigators have also done stories like Amy Ladaw-Ortiz from Indiana, whose personal accounts were restored after Meta made a child exploitation mistake.
"When I saw this (suspension notice), it was like child sexual exploitation. I was like what?” said Ladaw-Ortiz.
Plus, many similar complaints have been filed with the Federal Trade Commission against Meta.
For St. John, she’s suing Meta for $3500 for the loss of business during the 100+ days her account was suspended. She said that $3500 are like pennies to the big company, but not to her.
"To a small business owner, who’s single, just her and her dog doing Halle Bo Bally…that’s what I do…that’s everything,” said St. John.
After News 5 Investigators sent several emails, we finally heard from Meta saying -in part- you can appeal the suspensions and that it has a new tool for customers to fight hacked accounts.
St. John is continuing her lawsuit against Meta with the next hearing in court scheduled for mid-January.
