Yesterday, I got a notification saying Meta noticed botlike behavior on my account. I did the captcha it asked me to, I verified my phone number (same number as the Instagram account I logged in with, which is still in good standing), and submitted a photo of my face (per the instructions on what a "good photo" is). After 24 hours, I got a notice saying my account was deleted.
The notice said "we don't allow people on Threads to create fake accounts." It was not fake. It was my face, my phone number, my name, my account. On the notice, it has a "How we made this decision" section that says, "Our technology found your account, or activity on it, doesn't follow our rules. As a result, our technology took action."
So, basically, a bot decided that I wasn't human enough and deleted my account. It doesn't sound like a real person verified a thing. Then, when I reached out to support, I found the only available support is Meta's AI that was obviously no help to me at all. Does anyone even work at Meta anymore, or is it like an Ex Machina situation where it's just Zuck and some robots he abuses on an island somewhere?
I want to be clear that I was just using Threads (through the official app) on my Android phone with no third-party tools or anything of the sort. I didn't post anything even remotely strange or offensive, I had just been talking with people about music degrees. I did not violate any of their terms of use or community guidelines. I was using the app as intended. This truly came out of nowhere.
I'm really annoyed. All my posts and followers are gone for no reason, and I can't even make a new account because you have to log in with your Instagram account, and mine is now tied to a disabled account. So... I just don't get to use Threads anymore.
I'm so done with AI. 😒