<\/p>\n
\nProperty Investor Chat Group NZ administrators said they had no warning from Meta.
\nPhoto: NIKOLAS KOKOVLIS \/ AFP\n<\/p>\n
The country’s biggest property investor chat group has become another casualty of Facebook’s sweeping suspensions.<\/p>\n
Property Investor Chat Group NZ had 73,000 members when it was suspended last week.<\/p>\n
Its administrators said they had no warning.<\/p>\n
“We are quite strict in regulating content to stay on topic,” one of them, Nick Gentle, said.<\/p>\n
“Avoid fights. Post approval to remove anything fishy, and members report anyone sharing dodgy links and those profiles get blocked, so I’ve no idea what rule we broke.”<\/p>\n
‘Sometimes Facebook will say ‘we have removed content that went against our community guidelines’ but you can never click in to see what it was to adjust your settings.”<\/p>\n
He said they were having trouble reaching someone at Facebook to find out what to do next.<\/p>\n
If they could not save the page, they would have to start again, he said.<\/p>\n
Group founder Graeme Fowler said it seemed the decision was made by AI.<\/p>\n
Alex Sims, a University of Auckland professor in the department of commercial law, said people using tech platforms were generally at their mercy.<\/p>\n
“Lots of people and groups get removed from Facebook with no warning. One reason can be Meta’s use of AI, with no human in the loop reviewing the decision. [It] was a real issue earlier in the year, and the issue may still be occurring. There is an appeal process which should be initiated ASAP.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\nAlex Sims.
\nPhoto: Supplied\n<\/p>\n
“Given the issues with Meta unilaterally removing groups, it might be a good idea to move to another platform that is not so trigger-happy and also has better privacy protection… The issue is that those other platforms are often not as user-friendly as Facebook and not so familiar for the group’s members, so may be a steep learning curve for the admins and group members. “<\/p>\n
RNZ has reported on a number of cases where people have had their social media accounts suspended without a clear reason<\/a>.<\/p>\n Tens of thousands of people around the world signed a petition<\/a> advocating for affected users, who said they had been silenced by Meta’s “broken AI enforcement systems”.<\/p>\n Facebook has been approached for comment.<\/p>\n