Call Kurtis: Viewer almost loses 13 years of Facebook memories
PLYMOUTH -- A Plymouth viewer lost access to her Facebook account and says that the social media company claims she wasn't a real person.
It was time to call on Kurtis Ming to investigate.
Deborah Dill says her posts and images on her Facebook account have documented her life for more than a decade. Moments including family bowling trips, that one time she won tickets to the Deadliest Catch premier, her daughters' first days of school.
"I've had this account for 13 years," she said. "The pictures of my kids, the videos of them as they're growing up.
But one day, she says someone hacked her page, and all of those memories vanished from the site when Facebook banned her account. When she appealed, she says Facebook asked her to send in a copy of her driver's license, which she did, but was told in an email, "we've determined that you are ineligible to use Facebook."
"I find it ironic that they're blocking me for not being a real person," she said. "But it's not a real person reviewing the information."
So can you trust your posts and memories on social media won't vanish one day?
Joan Solsman, an expert from CNET, says that it's not unprecedented for a case like Deborah's to happen. And the automated response from Facebook isn't shocking either.
"You're one person in millions of billions that have a problem, and that can make fixing it really hard," said Solsman.
But after CBS13 got through to Facebook, the company was able to restore her access to her account, and all of those memories came flooding back.
Facebook wouldn't explain what happened in Deborah's case, but CBS13 has found that Facebook likes you download a copy of your profile so you can keep those memories somewhere safe, just in case.
