How would you feel if you instantly lost your Facebook or Instagram page without a hint of warning or preparation? What would you do about it after accumulating years of posts, photos, moments and memories that were permanently removed, with no ability to retrieve it?
Jerry Davich
“The stress and anxiety that I have been put under due to this situation is at a level that I cannot even begin to express,” said 29-year-old Josh Mertz. “It has affected my life in so many different ways, ranging from professional to personal to financial, and of course mental and psychological.”
Three years ago, during Labor Day weekend, the Indiana man received several alarming emails from Meta, the parent company that oversees Facebook, stating that his password had been changed and a login was detected from Vietnam. Also, that his account was abruptly disabled.
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“All within a few minutes of each other,” Mertz said.
On Sept. 2, 2022, Mertz received a string of emails from “The Facebook Security Team,” with one of them stating, “It looks like someone may have accessed your account.”
He immediately tried to appeal Meta’s action by submitting a photograph of himself with his driver’s license.
“This seemingly fails their artificial intelligence check because my account then gets ‘properly’ disabled, this time with no recourse or attempt to re-appeal,” he said.
A pop-up box on his account later stated, “Your Facebook account was disabled because it did not follow our community standards. We have already reviewed this decision and it cannot be reversed.”
The softball player ran hard around the bases, tagging third and heading for home. Just a few feet away, he stopped abruptly, crumbled into the dirt and grabbed his leg.
In just minutes, he lost 15 years of Facebook posts, experiences and hundreds of photos, most notably irreplaceable photos of his late father.
Mertz’s unexpected loss hit home for me. More than 15 years ago, I had a Facebook account that was hacked, disabled and forever lost to me. I have no idea what happened or how to access it. Yes, it’s a first-world problem, but I felt a sense of loss anyway.
Facebook, more than any other social media platform, has become part of my public identity. It also serves as my digital diary, a repository of my daily whereabouts, newspaper columns, public queries and personal submissions. Not to mention thousands of photos and videos.
As Mertz learned, we tend to forget how significant of a role Facebook plays in our life — if we allow it and don’t violate its policies.
“Meta claims my account violated their policies, but I have proof it was compromised and wrongfully flagged,” he said. “Despite countless attempts to recover it through Meta’s support channels, and even the Meta Verified program, I’ve received nothing but automated dead-ends and scripted responses.”
I reached out to Meta for input for this column. I have not yet heard back from the company.
Facebook does not publicly release numbers about how many user accounts are permanently disabled. Reasons for such an action include violation of community standards or commerce policies, severe or urgent policy breaches, repeated or severe infractions, and failed appeals by users within 180 days of a suspension, among other criteria.
Mertz shared with me every scrap of communication he had with Meta, including screenshots of his account, the profile page, email exchanges, documentation and a timeline dating back three years.
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“As someone who values digital transparency and autonomy, I’ve exhausted all internal avenues,” he said.
Mertz attempted to contact Meta Verified, the paid subscription service that offers individual creators and businesses a blue checkmark and other benefits including proactive account protection and priority support from human agents.
“I also attempted to subscribe to Meta Verified through my wife’s Facebook account to beg and plead my way to getting my account back,” Mertz said.
Nothing worked.
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Over the past three years, he has contacted news stations, private attorneys, the office of a congressman and the offices of attorney’s generals in Indiana, Illinois and California.
“Nobody seems to be willing or able to offer assistance to my situation,” Mertz said. “I truthfully don’t have any other ideas in regards of what to do.”
He is preparing to take Meta to small claims court in Indiana.
“While that may sound like a David versus Goliath scenario, I believe there’s power in telling these stories publicly, especially when the systems we rely on are becoming increasingly unaccountable,” he said.
“Mertz versus Meta” does sound lopsided, but I give him credit for his determination.
“This reflects not only my personal experience but also broader concerns about Big Tech overreach and the growing absence of digital consumer protection,” Mertz said. “I’d like to give a voice to the thousands of other users facing similar treatment who may not have the resources or persistence to fight back.”
If you’re a Facebook or Instagram user, you might empathize with Mertz losing his account. For millions of users, it’s the first thing they open in the morning and the last thing they check at night. For me, checking my Memories page is a nightly ritual to see what I did on that date for the past 16 years.
Losing those thousands of digital memories would feel like a gut punch.
“Having my soul ripped from me, effectively, is something I don’t want anyone else to experience,” Mertz said.
