Banned From Your Socials For No Reason? Call A ‘Robot Lawyer’

Earlier this month, reports surfaced that an artist on Instagram with the handle @metaverse had her account disabled for “pretending to be someone else” following Facebook’s rebrand to Meta. 

It took an exposé from The New York Times for Thea-Mai Baumann’s account to be returned, though the company failed to offer an apology or explanation for why her account had been suspended in the first place.

Unfortunately, what happened to Baumann occurs to users all over the world on a daily basis. Many people who’ve been wrongfully suspended from their social media accounts often have no way to get them reinstated, especially when it’s not a big enough story for the media to catch on.

Now, a new “robot lawyer” company, named DoNotPay, will offer automated legal services for those who want to get their accounts back. According to Engadget, the service is part of the firm’s monthly subscription and bypasses the usual appeals via email or help centers. 

After getting the relevant information from users, the “lawyer” will send a letter to the platforms’ legal departments on their behalf, which the service believes is a more effective way of getting accounts returned. 

“These platforms prioritize legal cases. When you’re just writing into customer service, they don’t take it seriously,” explained Joshua Browder, CEO of DoNotPay.

He said that the firm will try to find a “legal reason why they can’t ban you,” making use of state and federal laws to argue the case. Till now, PayPal and Instagram have been the most-requested sites from users, though the service can take on cases from Twitter, Snapchat, Uber, Tinder, YouTube, Twitch, and more. 

It’s important to note that the service won’t work for those who’ve been suspended for a legitimate reason, such as violating an app’s terms of service. Browder cautioned that even for those who were wrongly banned, only 20% of users actually get their account back.

While it may not be a sure-fire deal that you’ll regain control of your social media accounts, by appealing via the legal process, the platform will be required to turn over users’ data regardless if it’s reinstated or not. At the very least, you’ll get the details of your account back.

“In general in America, they do have the right to ban you. We don’t overstate that we can make miracles happen, but we can punish them a lot and get your data,” said Browder.  

[via Engadget, cover image via Primakov / Shutterstock.com]