CLEVELAND — More people are contacting News 5 Investigators after our report on Meta taking down Facebook and Instagram accounts based on false allegations of child sexual exploitation content.
Fran DiDonato from Cleveland was cooking dinner when our initial report aired.
“So, I sat down. I watched that segment and it was exactly what happened to me,” she told us.
MOM: 'SOME ABILITY TO TALK TO SOMEBODY'
DiDionato, like thousands of others, has been accused by Meta of child sexual exploitation content. She said her account went dark in July. She immediately appealed, but six months went by and no word from Meta.
"If you’re going to be such a huge piece of our fabric of our society, there really has to be some ability to talk to somebody,” said DiDonato.
She told us she lost her pictures, connecting to family and friends, and even the ability to monitor her son’s teen account on Instagram -the sole reason why she got it for him.
"I couldn’t supervise it in any way, and that made me angry, too, because, you know, I’m trying to be a good parent. It’s really, really hard, especially in the social media realm,” said DiDonato.
'I'M LIKE WHAT IS GOING ON?'
Anthony Stewart, Sr., from Cleveland, reached out to us as well.
"I felt confused because I’m like what is going on?” he told us.
He said he faced the same allegations, the same frustration, and no one from Meta he could talk to.
"The accusations are horrendous,” said Stewart, Sr. “Like you have to tell people. Is there proof? You got to show people something when you wrongly accusing people of stuff like this.”
An online petition with people claiming Meta got it wrong with them, too, now has more than 54,000 signatures.
We contacted Meta and asked them to help our viewers. They said it has a new tool to help with hacked accounts, and they couldn’t comment on individual accounts.
ACCOUNTS CONNECTED AGAIN
However, now Stewart, Sr., even after he got a notice saying his account still wasn’t in compliance, has his account back up.
"Speak out if it’s happening to you…speak out,” said Stewart, Sr. “And maybe they will fix it. If not, deuces, Facebook and Instagram.”
After we got involved, Meta looked into DiDonato’s account, too.
"It’s crazy that I had to go to these types of lengths just to get my account back,” she told us.
She’s now socially connected again, still upset but thankful she called the News 5 Investigators.
"This is [the] purpose of media is to be able to hold different people accountable, to show things that are happening that are not right in our society,” said DiDonato.
We were able to do this We Follow Through report because people like DiDonato and Stewart, Sr. reached out. If you have a story you’d like us to look into, call our tip line at 216-431-HELP (4357) and/or email us at InvestigatorTips@WEWS.com.
