A Toronto woman says Meta permanently shut down her Facebook and Instagram accounts without warning — and her only recourse has been to talk to AI chatbots.
Jasmine Ault told The Canadian Press she has not been able to reach a human being at Meta since the accounts were deactivated on Sept. 24.
She said the company shut down her 20-year-old Facebook account, an Instagram account that dates back to 2011 and another Instagram account dedicated to her dog.
"It's actually quite scary to think about the trust that we put in the social media platforms that can all be taken away in one day," she said in an interview.
Ault compared the experience to losing belongings in a fire.
"That's how it feels. And it's really upsetting because the hypothetical, the metaphorical fire that I'm referring to, is my memories."
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She said she has lost her social media contacts and is unable to let people know she hasn't blocked them and isn't ignoring them.
"There's a dead end and I can't even communicate to the people I want to communicate with," Ault said.
She described the experience as isolating, leaving her unable to look back at memories, connect with people, or see what they are up to through their posts.
Meta didn't give Ault a reason for shutting down her accounts and said only that her Facebook account "doesn't follow our rules."
Ault said she hadn't posted on Facebook in years, though she did post frequently on Instagram.
She said she suspects someone tried to hack her account because she found a record of suspicious login attempts shortly before the account was deactivated. Meta also had her phone number associated with a person who lives in India.
Ault said she has only been able to talk to Meta's AI chatbots, which have not been able to resolve the issue. After she requested a review, the chatbot told her it was unsuccessful and her Facebook account had been "permanently disabled."
She said she hasn't been able to contact a human being at the company despite signing up for and paying for a verified account, a service that Meta says includes direct help from human agents.
"If Facebook wants to be the main conglomerate for social media, they need to be accessible," she said.
Media outlets have reported similar experiences among users of Meta’s platforms in the United States. In July, The New York Times profiled several users whose accounts were deleted by AI, and who then had to rely on AI to resolve the issue.
Meta restored some of the accounts after the newspaper flagged them to the company. Two of those accounts had been hacked before they were deactivated.
Markus Giesler, a professor of marketing at York University, said social media platforms have become very important to people’s personal lives and careers.
"We like to think of this as a customer service case when in actuality it's a case of platform accountability," he said.
"These platforms have been woven so much into our social fabric, into who we are as individuals and communities, that access to them is really important."
Giesler said efforts to regulate social media platforms should also address issues like access and being able to talk to a human being at a company.
He said suspending an account can have personal financial consequences.
Ault, who is working full-time as a manager of marketing and communications, said she has used her social media in the past to find clients for her own consulting agency. Without her accounts, that's not possible at the moment.
"They have nothing to look at. They can't see my portfolio of work," she said.
When contacted by The Canadian Press, a Meta spokesperson pointed to a blog post that provides information on how to access account support. It includes an update from March saying Meta was rolling out an AI support assistant.
The spokesperson did not provide any comment or respond to questions — such as how a person with a deactivated account can contact a human being at Meta.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 29, 2026.
