AI confused dogs for something else—and this Aussie paid the $50k price
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An innocent dog video turned into a nightmare for one Aussie business owner.
A simple post on social media triggered a chain reaction she never saw coming.
Weeks later, she says she’s still reeling from a devastating $50,000 blow.
Rochelle Marinato, managing director of Pilates World Australia, said she was stunned when her social media accounts were suddenly suspended after sharing a lighthearted clip of three dogs on her personal profile.
She later received an email from the platform’s parent company, Meta, informing her that the video breached guidelines related to ‘child sexual exploitation, abuse and nudity’.
Marinato believed it was an obvious mistake—she said the artificial intelligence moderator must have misinterpreted the dogs in the video as children.
‘I was confused, but I wasn’t overly worried. It seemed like such a silly mistake, and I assumed it would be sorted out straight away,’ she shared.
But what began as a seemingly minor error quickly spiralled.
Because her business account was linked to her personal profile, it was also suspended—despite the original post having nothing to do with Pilates World.
‘Instagram is a critical marketing platform for any small business, especially one in the pilates and wellness industry that relies heavily on social media for visibility and sales,’ she explained.
Marinato said she had hoped the appeals process would be fair and fast, especially once a real person looked into the matter.
‘We missed out on several major opportunities that could have increased revenue, most notably an influencer with 1.2 million followers who tried to promote our products and made the comment that our business “couldn’t be found”,’ she said.
Her business visibility took a major hit—customers thought they’d closed down, or worse, been banned for something serious.
She estimated she lost about $50,000 in potential revenue, and said income dropped by 75 per cent during the suspension.
‘It was extremely stressful, being the sole provider for my family. This sudden drop in income, combined with the feeling that resolving the issue was impossible, caused immense anxiety,’ she added.
Meta, which uses both people and technology to enforce its content policies, told news.com.au, ‘We take action on accounts that violate our policies, and people can appeal if they think we’ve made a mistake’.
But Marinato said she contacted Meta Support over 20 times and received only ‘generic and robotic responses’.
She also reached out to the Meta Oversight Board, hired a lawyer, and consulted IT and marketing experts—none of whom could get a straight answer.
It wasn’t until she paid a third-party service that she regained access to her business account three weeks later.
‘The hardest part of this whole experience was that there was simply no course of action,’ she said.
‘Meta has no contact number, no email address, no live chat, and most importantly, no human support.’
‘If I had just been able to speak to a human being, this would have been resolved immediately with little impact on my livelihood.’
When a platform mistake can wipe out thousands in income overnight, it raises serious questions about how much we can really trust the systems we rely on.
And when those same platforms are also being used to push fake businesses and scams, the risks only multiply.
Here’s another story that reveals how social media can create more confusion than convenience.
Read more: Are ‘ghost stores’ haunting your social media feed? How to spot and avoid them
How can small business owners protect their livelihood when even an ‘innocent’ post can lead to disaster?
A simple post on social media triggered a chain reaction she never saw coming.
Weeks later, she says she’s still reeling from a devastating $50,000 blow.
Rochelle Marinato, managing director of Pilates World Australia, said she was stunned when her social media accounts were suddenly suspended after sharing a lighthearted clip of three dogs on her personal profile.
She later received an email from the platform’s parent company, Meta, informing her that the video breached guidelines related to ‘child sexual exploitation, abuse and nudity’.
Marinato believed it was an obvious mistake—she said the artificial intelligence moderator must have misinterpreted the dogs in the video as children.
AI flags dog video, suspends accounts. Image source: Rochelle Marinato
‘I was confused, but I wasn’t overly worried. It seemed like such a silly mistake, and I assumed it would be sorted out straight away,’ she shared.
But what began as a seemingly minor error quickly spiralled.
Because her business account was linked to her personal profile, it was also suspended—despite the original post having nothing to do with Pilates World.
‘Instagram is a critical marketing platform for any small business, especially one in the pilates and wellness industry that relies heavily on social media for visibility and sales,’ she explained.
Marinato said she had hoped the appeals process would be fair and fast, especially once a real person looked into the matter.
‘We missed out on several major opportunities that could have increased revenue, most notably an influencer with 1.2 million followers who tried to promote our products and made the comment that our business “couldn’t be found”,’ she said.
Her business visibility took a major hit—customers thought they’d closed down, or worse, been banned for something serious.
She estimated she lost about $50,000 in potential revenue, and said income dropped by 75 per cent during the suspension.
‘It was extremely stressful, being the sole provider for my family. This sudden drop in income, combined with the feeling that resolving the issue was impossible, caused immense anxiety,’ she added.
Meta, which uses both people and technology to enforce its content policies, told news.com.au, ‘We take action on accounts that violate our policies, and people can appeal if they think we’ve made a mistake’.
But Marinato said she contacted Meta Support over 20 times and received only ‘generic and robotic responses’.
She also reached out to the Meta Oversight Board, hired a lawyer, and consulted IT and marketing experts—none of whom could get a straight answer.
It wasn’t until she paid a third-party service that she regained access to her business account three weeks later.
‘The hardest part of this whole experience was that there was simply no course of action,’ she said.
‘Meta has no contact number, no email address, no live chat, and most importantly, no human support.’
‘If I had just been able to speak to a human being, this would have been resolved immediately with little impact on my livelihood.’
When a platform mistake can wipe out thousands in income overnight, it raises serious questions about how much we can really trust the systems we rely on.
And when those same platforms are also being used to push fake businesses and scams, the risks only multiply.
Here’s another story that reveals how social media can create more confusion than convenience.
Read more: Are ‘ghost stores’ haunting your social media feed? How to spot and avoid them
How can small business owners protect their livelihood when even an ‘innocent’ post can lead to disaster?
