ST. CHARLES, Mo. – A St. Charles woman will never forget her 30th birthday.
“I got to stay home with my son. I got a job offer that day. It was a great day!” said Kylie Perrewe.
Perrewe received a message from Facebook saying her account was disabled.
“I was banned from Facebook for posting something that I didn’t post,” she said. “I’m not sure what even was posted.”
Perrewe learned her account was hacked. She said she immediately tried everything she could to get it fixed.
“There was a button you could press that said disagree with the decision,” she said. “They immediately emailed me back and said the decision was final.”
Perrewe said her attempts to contact Facebook went unanswered.
“You know, it’s a $450 billion dollar company, and they don’t have customer service. It seems like that should be illegal to me at this point,” she said. “If it was something bad, I’m glad it got taken down. I’m glad Facebook has the capability to take things down that quickly, but if they have those capabilities, then they need to have more consumer capabilities for us because I’m on the losing end of this right now.”
Perrewe decided to take matters into her own hands. After scouring the internet for answers, she came across a Twitter account for the head of security policy at Facebook’s parent company, Meta. She messaged the employee; he listened to her story and escalated her case. Twenty-four hours later, she said her account was unlocked.
“It’s really just those memories and that communication is such a big part of your life. You don’t realize it until it’s gone,” Perrewe said.
She said losing her account was like having a chapter of her family history gone. Perrewe hopes sharing her story will encourage Facebook to change how it reviews cases like hers.
“There are so many stories out there exactly like mine,” she said.
FOX 2 contacted Facebook several times with questions about Perrewe’s case and has not received a response. Perrewe’s effort shows the power of persistence, but what worked for her might not work for everyone. Outside of following the protocol Facebook provides its users, there’s no solution we can share with you.
FOX 2 will continue pressing Facebook to explain its policies and hopefully change them, so they’re more user-friendly.