Ask HN: Can I take Meta to court for banning business Insta or FB account?

13 points by milanspeaks 2 days ago | 7 comments

Let's say I spend a considerable amount of money in Meta ads.

I have followed all ruled but some automated system assume that I have done something wrong and automatically banned me.

Now I understand that such systems exist to prevent bad actors. But outright banning a business that is spending money on your platform is a violation of customer service rules.

There has to be a proper customer service channel.

In real world, I don't know of any other business that bans the account and there is no customer support available.

Bender 2 days ago |

I would suggest talking to a lawyer about this and not HN. There are lawyers on here but you have no way to verify who is really a lawyer and you miss out on attorney client privs. Try to find lawyers that specialize in internet fraud.

techjuice 1 day ago |

If you are in the USA, you can sue for whatever you want, but you have to be the one to prove the actual law was broken.

Meta has the right to stop business with anyone they set for any reason at any time.

If they don't want you as a customer due to something your business was doing or customers you were attracting they can stop providing services to you which is not against the law. There could have been an accidental ban due to the algorithm they used, but this may also have been a risk threshold breach and it was not worth continuing business with your company due to the threshold being breached.

codingdave 22 hours ago | |

You don't sue because laws were broken. When you sue someone, it is a civil case, not a criminal case. You are examining case law and contracts to determine whether there is a viable torts case or contract violations that would result in you being able to prove enough damage that it is worth going to court over those issues.

So, no, it is not necessarily true that meta can stop business with anyone at any time for any reason. It is not necessarily false, either. As any attorney will tell you: "It depends."

baigy 2 days ago |

You could start an online campaign to put together other aggrieved parties and prepare for a class action lawsuit. There are several reasons (time, commitment, money, opportunity cost, improbability of it all) because of which you may not end up making it happen. But sure, it's a potential step you can take.

droid16 2 days ago |

IANAL but,

- Can you sue? It's America you can sue anyone for anything.

- You will have to prove material harm to your business.

- You will also have to prove you tried your best to contact them and mitigate the situation.

- If you agreed to the ToS then without question there's some clause that says "you can't blame us if something goes wrong" which is obviously not going to help your case (this being the single reason you probably won't succeed).

- I think you'd have to prove objectively you did nothing to violate the ToS, you tried in good faith to make them aware of the mistake, and that the mistake is causing material harm to your business.

As others mentioned. Talk to a lawyer.

dragonwriter 2 days ago |

This might be breach of contract, fraud, or violation of some more jurisdiction-specific business law, but you really need to talk to a lawyer about the specific details of your case to get advice on the legalities and your options and the prospects of each in pursuing a remedy.

Clikdeo 2 days ago |

I also lost my account and still waiting for a miracle.