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For 10 years, Felicia Chalikias built her spray tan business one client — and one Instagram post — at a time.
Her social media feeds were packed with glowing before-and-after photos, tanning tips, and playful reels that kept customers coming back and new ones lining up.
Then, on June 20, it was all gone. She logged in to find her Instagram and Facebook business accounts — along with her personal profiles — disabled without warning.
“My Instagram page was basically the storefront of my business — it’s where I did my marketing, it’s how clients found me, where I did bookings, all of it,” she said in an interview.
Meta, the parent company of Instagram and Facebook, informed her that the account for her business, Spray Tan Glow, violated its community standards, claiming that it “doesn’t follow our Community standards on child and sexual exploitation, abuse, and nudity.”
Chalikias said no children have ever appeared on her accounts and that her content has always been consistent, showing her work, her process, and her products.
“It’s been 10 years. I’ve never had anything flagged,” she said, adding that such a serious accusation should never be made lightly and certainly not, as she believes, by an algorithm without human review.
Appeal rejected instantly
CTV News contacted Meta multiple times for comment, but the company did not respond before publication time.The Laval entrepreneur immediately appealed the decision. While Meta told her it could take up to 48 hours to review, Chalikias said a rejection response came less than two minutes later. She wondered how someone could possibly review 10 years of content so quickly.
Read more: ‘It can’t be left to AI’: Laval spray tan business owner denounces Meta over account shutdown