On the 7th March, I awoke to a lovely message from Facebook. They'd suspended my account. Why? Because there was suspicion that 'I' was pretending to be a well known person, public figure or business. My profile picture had been changed, my name had been changed, my email address linked to this account had been changed - yep, I had been hacked.

'That's OK' I thought to myself, I will simply disagree with the decision and Facebook will review it, see that I have been hacked (which I had plenty of evidence to provide) they'll restore my account, and everything will be OK again. No big deal.

I was wrong. Although I was informed (after I pushed that little disagree button) that if Facebook finds my account goes against Community Standards it will be permanently disabled, I never even fathomed this would happen, but it was.

At this point, you're probably sitting there with thoughts like 'it's just social media, start a new one.' Or, 'jeez, doesn't this person have any real-life issues to deal with'. Because loosing Facebook is really a first world problem right?

Well no, not for people like me. You see, for reasons that I won't go into on a public forum, Facebook wasn't just a social media platform for me. Facebook was the only 'place' I had copies of approx. 7 years of my child's life. Videos, photos, memories - that I cannot get back. It was naive of me to ever think that I didn't need a backup option after horrifically loosing all of my physical copies of these memories so long ago, and something I am regretting to this day, however, that's what it is. 7 years of MY memories gone. No chance of recovering, no opportunity to get access to my data (the account has been so permanently deleted that I can't even download my information nor get an email / text verification to the account to try again). Just, gone.

I go to bed every single night and have done so for the last 8 weeks with pure panic and anxiety when I think about how much I have lost. Video's of my daughter's first day of school, those silly photos of her as a baby that would be shared on her 21st, photos of her with family members whom we have lost, video's of her shaving her head as a 13 year old girl for the World's Greatest Shave, the list could go on.

Now, if you've ever had your account hacked / disabled, you'll know that it is absolutely impossible to get any form of assistance from Facebook / Meta. There is no Customer Service, emails  go unanswered, reports of hacking go unactioned etc. And today, I am starting this petition to say that that isn't right. It's not OK that my information just disappears. It's not OK that 2.9 Billion people in this world use this platform, and there is no assistance. 

And most importantly, it's not OK that there are Mothers, Fathers, Daughters, Sons, Grandparents and Friends out there in the world who could face this exact issue. Memories gone forever over the naivety that their information is theirs to keep. Women and men who have escaped Domestic Violence not able to leave with their keepsakes, Mothers and Fathers who have lost children and get to share a moment of joy when that memory you've shared pops up, families who particularly here in Australia have lost everything physical due to the ongoing flood crisis recently, and the horrific bushfires in the years prior.

I'm asking for Facebook / Meta to acknowledge that for many, their platform is much more than just a source of information, connection or revenue streams. For many, it is all they have left. Meta should support people who are impacted by fraudulent activity, and at the VERY least enable a contact point for assistance to retrieve personal photographs / memories etc prior to an account being permanently deleted. 

It's time to give me back what's mine. And to stop anyone ever having to go through this again. Please, sign this petition in the hopes of drawing some attention and hopefully, make a change.