Air passenger rights advocate wants answers after temporarily restricted from Facebook

A Canadian air passenger rights advocate is speaking out after being temporarily blocked from commenting on his group’s Facebook page. “Being a giant is no excuse for being unfair,” said Gábor Lukács, president of Air Passenger Rights.

Lukács is the founder of the non-profit group. He says he regularly comments on the Air Passenger Rights Facebook page, providing information to the traveling public.

However, on Nov. 21, Lukács says he was temporarily restricted from making comments on the social media page.

“When I was trying to respond to a passenger, I received an error message that my account has been restricted and I’ve been blocked from commenting for a week until Nov. 28,” Lukács told Consumer Matters.

“I was shocked. We are very careful to follow all procedures or rules. We don’t allow any kind of abusive content, we are screening comments, we are moderating comments,” he added.

The Air Passenger Rights Facebook group has over 266,000 members and while it remained active, Lukács says he couldn’t participate. “They shut me down for seven days without any explanation, any reasons, any appeal process, any review process,” said Lukács.

Making the situation more frustrating, Lukács is a verified Facebook subscriber and says he pays a monthly fee, which is supposed to provide enhanced support.

Meta, Facebook’s parent company, states on its website – Meta verified enhanced support “offers direct help from human agents through chat and email.” However, Lukács says Meta couldn’t identify why the restriction was placed on his Facebook page, even though he’s the acting administrator.

“There was just no one to talk to,” Lukács told Consumer Matters. “They were absolutely of no assistance. They have not been able to identify why this restriction was placed on my account.”

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Technology and digital lifestyle expert Andy Baryer says he isn’t surprised by Lukács’ experience with Meta. He says he’s heard of many people getting shut out of their accounts, whether it’s Facebook or Instagram, through no fault of their own.

“The reason this is happening is because Meta has now deployed these AI moderation tools and what typically is happening is are false positives. It’s flagging something thinking it’s something suspicious when it’s not and then they will block the account and then that user really just can’t get back in no matter what they try to do because there is no human out there for them to talk to,” said Baryer of HandyAndy Media.

Baryer recommends that users of Facebook and Instagram set up a personal website. “With big tech you never know in this day and age if it gets taken down, but if it does, you still have a way to connect with all of your followers,” said Baryer.

Consumer Matters reached out to Meta about Lukács’ situation, but never received a response. Lukács restriction on Facebook was eventually lifted, but he says going forward, he wants more transparency and accountability from Meta.

“This is not how any corporation, especially one which is in a quasi-monopoly status or position like Facebook should be allowed to behave,” said Lukács.

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