Aussie business owner slams Instagram as account deactivated, costing $50,000 in lost bookings

An Aussie wedding photographer is desperately trying to pick up the pieces, with one move by Instagram costing her up to $50,000.

A Perth wedding photographer is speaking out after one move by social media juggernaut Instagram threatened to derail her small business.

Last week, Stefanie Buma, who has worked in the wedding photography industry since 2012, was devastated to discover her business’ Instagram account – which she had spent close to a decade carefully growing – had been “disabled without warning for no reason”.

Speaking to news.com.au, she said that when she submitted an identity confirmation as requested by the platform – which is owned by Facebook’s parent company Meta – her review was denied, and she has since been blocked from any further appeals.

“That account held eight years of work and thousands of followers I had built up over time,” Ms Buma explained.

“Connections with Vogue magazine and many other publications I worked hard to achieve have now disappeared.

“95 per cent of my inquiries come from Instagram, particularly my international inquiries. Now having to start all over again is going to absolutely obliterate my entire overseas market and my credibility with high-end luxury planners who are used to sending their clients to photographers with a well-established online presence.”

Stefanie Buma has been left devastated by the Instagram debacle. Picture: Supplied

Ms Buma said she had spent hours and hours” trawling the Facebook business centre “hoping that the live chat support button pops up”.

It never did, and the young businesswoman resorted to other measures, forking out for premium LinkedIn access in a desperate attempt to reach a human being who worked for Instagram who could help her save her business.

She even considered buying a pair of Meta’s virtual reality glasses – which retail for an eye-watering $US1500 ($A2183) – simply because that technology does come with a form of chat support.

Ms Buma said she wanted to speak out about the Instagram problem – which has plagued countless other small businesses in the past, including Australian bridal magazine Hello May – to highlight “the despair it causes people”.

“It’s absolutely ridiculous that Instagram has still not fixed their appeals system for wrongfully disabled accounts and continue to have the ability to destroy small businesses in one swipe,” she said.

“I have never broken a single rule, I have a feeling it may have something to do with logging in via a third party app. But for it to just log out without warning, and tell me it has been disabled, is wrong.

Stefanie Buma says 95 per cent of reservations came via Instagram. Picture: Supplied

Stefanie Buma has been a wedding photographer for more than a decade. Picture: Supplied

“I have spent years [building my profile] and the thought of having to start all over again is so incredibly stressful and exhausting, and it means everything else I had to do this week has gone out the window.

“95 per cent of inquiries come from Instagram, and I was in the process of booking all my European season next year, so I won’t get any overseas inquiries – nobody is going to spend thousands hiring a photographer without an established online [presence], so that’s potentially $50,000 gone.”

Ms Buma said while she did have strong website, and had launched a new Instagram account as she attempted to have her old one reinstated, it was a crushing position to be in.

“When I posted about it to the wedding community, the response was ‘good luck ever getting it back’, because it had happened to so many of them. Some people had lost their entire personal account as well as their business account, which makes me realise how much we depend on the platform,” she said.

“It’s obviously a rampant problem when it keeps happening, and people are going to desperate measures.

“Even the language they one on any online form I tried to fill out after a review was denied … was so passive-aggressive.

“Stop reviewing people’s businesses with bots – it’s clearly not done by a person, but the impact is 100 personal, and we already spend so much money on advertising on Instagram, only to receive zero support.”

Ms Buma said the only silver lining in the ordeal had been the support she had been shown from friends, family and members of the wedding industry who had witnessed her “devastation” at the “extremely difficult” professional setback.

“Honestly, I feel so helpless. Will they ever change? Probably not, but they need to fix it. It’s clear they don’t care. I’d expect a platform this big to have [this problem] sorted, but the fact they actively block appeals is ridiculous,” she said.

News.com.au contacted Meta for comment.