Meta AI error costs pilates business owner $50k over dog photo blunder

Meta artificial intelligence mistakenly classing a photo of three pet dogs as “child sexual exploitation, abuse and nudity” has proved costly for an Aussie business.

A business owner says she lost at least $50,000 after Meta – the owner of Facebook and Instagram – mistakenly classed a photo of her three pet dogs as ‘child sexual exploitation, abuse and nudity’, leading to her accounts being disabled.

Rochelle Marinato’s business page on Instagram was shut down for almost a month after the stuff-up from Meta, in which artificial intelligence used by the global social media behemoth wrongly cited a picture she posted of her three dogs.

This photo of Rochelle Marinato's dogs led to her Meta accounts being disabled. Picture: Supplied

A copy of a message from Rochelle Marinato to customers and followers after her accounts were disabled. Picture: Supplied

Ms Marinato’s account was only reinstated after she paid an online sleuth to help get the accounts active again – with the development more effective than more than 20 emails she sent, including one containing a letter from her solicitor, to Meta.

Ms Marinato’s pilates equipment business – which she pays Meta to advertise – was crippled during the suspension of her accounts.

“It’s massive – we’re in the pilates space, fitness is very big in social media, we rely on Instagram very heavily … we were running an end of financial year sale … we felt it instantly. Those last three or four days of the sale, everything went really quiet,” she said.

“I was desperate – we were losing money daily, we were still paying for Meta ads daily which weren’t getting shown.

“My accounts were down for three weeks – it’s hard to put a figure on it, but our revenue was down $50,000 – (but there’s also) some big influencers that tried to share the brand during that time who couldn’t.”

Ms Marinato said revenue is down after her page was shut down. Picture: Lionel Bonaventure/AFP

A Meta spokesman brushed off concerns, saying: “We take action on accounts that violate our policies, and people can appeal if they think we’ve made a mistake”.

Meta insists it hasn’t seen a significant increase in incorrect enforcement of its rules, since bringing on AI to crackdown on breaches of users accounts.

Originally published as Meta AI error costs pilates business owner $50k over dog photo blunder