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Trades’ group account flagged for allegedly breaking child exploitation rules
Published Jul 23, 2025 • Last updated 4 hours ago • 5 minute read
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Denise Miller, of Kingston, lost access to her Facebook account last weekend following the flagging of an Instagram account she manages on behalf of a skilled trades organization. SUBMITTEDArticle content
Denise Miller was on her boat when the plug was pulled on her digital existence Saturday afternoon.
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The Kingston marketing professional, who uses social media for her livelihood, received a strange message from Instagram about an account she manages on behalf of a provincial skilled trades organization.
That account had been suspended, as either it – or “activity on it” – didn’t meet Instagram’s “community standards on child sexual exploitation, nudity and abuse.”
Miller was dumbfounded. Her last post was about a grant for skilled trades education.
Immediately, Miller changed her password, suspecting the account had been hacked based on an inbox full of spam messages. She then started a cumbersome online process where she had to visually prove her identity to appeal the suspension.
“I’m on the boat, I’m doing this video selfie thing, send it in, and within four minutes, it came back and said, ‘No, (the account is) permanently disabled,’” she said.
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“Obviously a human didn’t even look at it.”
But that was only the start of what would become an erasure of Miller’s digital footprint.
Within minutes, Miller lost access to her personal Facebook account. She had used it to run the Instagram account on behalf of the trades’ group.
In order to get back onto Facebook, Miller would need to re-appeal her Instagram suspension – an online process she couldn’t now access because the account had been permanently deactivated.
“I’m just dealing with A.I. hell,” said Miller, who provided Brunswick News Monday with screenshots of the automated messages she’s received from Facebook and Instagram over the last few days.
Miller has reached out multiple times via email to tech giant Meta, which owns both Facebook and Instagram. So far, she says she hasn’t received a single response to her appeals for help.
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Brunswick News requested comment from Meta. A company spokesperson confirmed an investigation is underway.
“We take action on accounts that violate our policies, and people can appeal if they think we’ve made a mistake,” Meta said in a statement.
According to Meta, it uses a combination of “people and technology” to identify and remove rule-breaking accounts. The company says users have the opportunity to appeal decisions, and if an account or piece of content was removed erroneously, it will be restored.
“It’s like you’re a hostage,” Miller said of the situation. “Your digital footprint is hostage. I can see if you broke these community standards or did something wrong, but if you haven’t done anything, there’s no recourse.”
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Miller’s story is far from unique.
Recent news reports from around the world detail accounts of Facebook and Instagram users abruptly losing access to their accounts for allegedly violating community standards.
Australian beautician Madison Archer lost access to both her personal and professional accounts after she posted a photo of herself holding her daughter, according to an Australian Broadcasting Corporation report last week.
Archer told the media outlet she was falsely accused of breaking child exploitation rules.
Closer to home, Brittany Watson, of Ontario, told the BBC her Facebook account was disabled for nine days on the grounds of “account integrity.” She decided to take action against Meta.
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Almost 31,000 people have now signed her online petition calling on the company to “fix its broken systems and treat its users with respect and fairness,” blaming its artificial intelligence (A.I.) moderation system for “disabling thousands of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp accounts without cause.”
Meta told Brunswick News it tracks data around its enforcement of community standards and hasn’t seen proof of a “significant” increase in the number of cases where the rules have been incorrectly applied.
Tech giants wield ‘disproportionate’ share of power: expert
Cybersecurity expert David Shipley isn’t surprised to hear of the plight of Miller and countless other social media users around the world.
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“Facebook made a move a couple of years ago to dramatically cut back human oversight of concerns flagged by A.I. systems,” said Shipley, who is the CEO and co-founder of Beauceron Security Inc., a New Brunswick-based cybersecurity software firm.
“(Facebook) had large contracts with content moderators from third-party firms. Those were expensive, they were a drain on their profitability, and absent any requirement for them to have these kinds of functions, they’ve cut them.”
Despite the growing permeation of social media in people’s lives, the Canadian government has struggled to deal with the “power imbalance” between tech giants and citizens, according to Shipley, who previously testified before Parliament’s public safety committee on the topic of cybersecurity.
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“What’s frustrating is the disproportionate amount of power (the tech giants) have in our society,” he said. “If someone now wants to do modern effective digital marketing and advertising, they have to have this presence, and arbitrarily some robot machine made a flawed decision, which they are prone to do, to ruin someone’s livelihood with no recourse.”
A growing form of “reputational sabotage” is occurring through social media by pairing account hacking and false flagging, according to Claudiu Popa, CEO of Datarisk Canada, a Toronto-based cybersecurity firm.
“Victims are often unaware their accounts have been compromised until they are locked out entirely and accused of posting criminal content,” Popa said in an email.
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“This tactic is especially damaging because it weaponizes automated moderation systems before users have a chance to respond.”
A screenshot of the message Denise Miller received on the Instagram account she manages on behalf of a skilled trades organization. The Kingston woman says she believes the account was hacked based on an inbox full of spam messages. SUBMITTED
Miller says she has yet to see any evidence from Meta that content she posted to the trades group’s Instagram account breached any community standards.
“I’m very careful,” Miller said. “Even on my own account, I’m not one of those people on Facebook that posts selfies or bikini shots or anything. I’ve had my account for 18 years.”
Shipley wants to see a bill of rights for Canadian digital citizens to ensure they have timely access to a resolution with tech giants. However, he recognizes it’s an “extraordinarily difficult” time right now to introduce regulation against U.S. tech companies.
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Last month, the Canadian government cancelled a planned digital service tax on these companies after U.S. President Donald Trump announced he would end trade talks between the countries over the tax.
This friction doesn’t help Canadians like Miller. She relies on Facebook access to moderate two business pages, as well as post community and charity happenings in her rural community.
She’s encouraging New Brunswickers to have multiple moderators on Facebook pages they run in their communities and, above all, to back up photos they’ve posted.
She’s learned the hard way by losing access right now to her daughter’s graduation photos.
“It’s really kind of gut-punching,” she said.
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