A Baltimore County mom turned to WJZ after saying Meta wrongfully disabled her daughter’s Instagram, where she shared her dog-training and performance content.

They tell us the account was permanently disabled for violating Meta’s “Child Sexual Exploitation, Abuse, and Nudity” Policy. After attempts to appeal failed, they contacted us. WJZ reached out to Meta this morning, and within hours, the account was restored.

Jennifer Solomon’s 16-year-old daughter, Sarah Jane, runs the Instagram account Magic Pack Dogs. It often featured her family’s Golden Retriever, Minnie, and Border Collie Ziggy.

“Ever since I’ve discovered that, you know, I really enjoyed, this sort of performing with dogs, it’s just brought me so much joy, and I love seeing the joy it brings to other people, said Sarah Jane.”

She’s performed at nursing homes, for Girl Scout troops, and at birthday parties. Sarah Jane says it’s to help educate and “bring the fun of performing with dogs, to people who might not usually get to see that.”

Over the years, she’s worked training other dogs in the community as well as rescue dogs, teaching them basic obedience to help them get adopted.

Her Instagram account is where she connects with groups interested in having her perform and where people can go to see her portfolio of work.

Notification of permanent disabling

Last week, they received a notification from Meta alerting them that the account was permanently disabled for violating Meta’s “Child Sexual Exploitation, Abuse, and Nudity” Policy.

The Solomons said Meta got it wrong and only wholesome content is featured.

“It was very much something where my brain was just like… since it’s such a mistake, I would just go and appeal,” said Sarah Jane.

Within 24 hours, they say the appeal was denied, and attempts to contact a human at Meta failed.

Sarah Jane said it was disheartening, “To be accused of something that big, and then to go through this process and not have any chance to speak to anyone, or to try to defend yourself, said Sarah Jane.

Account restored within hours of WJZ inquiry

WJZ reached out to Meta for answers.

“It’d be nice if people didn’t have to go to such lengths, you know, to reach out to the press to get, you know, something like this taken care of,” said Jennifer.

Within a couple of hours after WJZ reached out to Meta, the account was restored, along with other family Instagram and Facebook accounts connected to the dog-training page.

The Solomons received an email from Meta that said:

“Thanks for taking the time to request a review. We reviewed your account and found that the activity on it does follow our Community Standards on child sexual exploitation, abuse, and nudity, so you can use Instagram again.

We’re sorry we got this wrong and that you weren’t able to use Instagram for a while. Sometimes we need to take action to help keep our community safe.”

WJZ asked Meta how it determines when accounts violate Meta’s “Child Sexual Exploitation, Abuse, and Nudity” Policy.

We also asked if humans are involved in the initial decision to deactivate accounts or in the appeal process.

Meta has not responded.

What’s next?

Jennifer and Sarah Jane are happy to have the account restored and say they understand the importance of removing harmful material, but wish the process to appeal would have been easier.

“If Meta could take something away from [this situation]… maybe after, like, a third appeal, you know, like, it could be escalated to a human,” said Jennifer.

As for what’s next, the mother-daughter duo is in the process of launching a website and taking Sarah Jane’s passion to the next level.

“Just hoping to get more chances to do what I love, because it’s such an important aspect of my life, and I like how it brings a lot of joy to others,” said Sarah Jane.