Banned from Instagram with no right of appeal

I am the mentor of a young black entrepreneur, RM, who has had his personal and business social media accounts removed by Meta, which owns Instagram.

- Anna Tims

There was no notice, no option to appeal and, from my understanding, no just cause. He had built up two successful businesses in clothing design and music events.

Six days before the ban, he had sold 1,500 tickets for an electronic dance event in London. Instagram, rather than a website, is the platform for his work. However, he was suddenly informed that his content did not abide by Meta's community guidelines on violence and incitement.

His business account, which had 5,700 followers, and his personal account, with nearly 4,000 contacts, were deleted. These represent his entire social and professional network, as he has no alternative contact book. He has not been allowed to retrieve this data. The IP addresses on his devices have been banned, so he can't open new accounts.

I have been following his work, and have not seen anything violent, save for toy weapons in one promo video. This man's life has been damaged by what appears to be an algorithm. RP, London