PHOENIX (AZFamily) — A Phoenix medical spa owner had her business and personal social media accounts restored after they were falsely suspended for alleged child sexual exploitation violations.
Lavaya Pristo, who owns a medspa in central Phoenix, discovered her Instagram and Facebook accounts had been permanently disabled when friends and clients began asking if she was still in business.
“Hey, are you still in business? I see your Instagram, all your social media is gone,” Pristo said clients told her. “So I got on, looked and everything just says user not found.”
Pristo performs cosmetic procedures including botox and chemical peels at her spa. She said Instagram is invaluable for her business.
“I post a lot of information, a lot of education, a lot of procedures. And that brings my clientele, you know, as well as messaging through Instagram,” Pristo said.
Accounts suspended for child exploitation allegations
Messages from Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, showed her accounts were suspended, appealed and denied within minutes during the night. The reason shocked her.
“It was violating child sexual exploitation, which instantly gave me like a panic, because I was like, oh my gosh, there’s no way,” Pristo said.
Pristo said there was nothing inappropriate on her pages. With her business accounts gone, clients assumed her spa had shut down and business slowed significantly. The issue even spread to Yelp, which mistakenly listed her spa as permanently closed.
Nationwide problem affects businesses
Pristo researched the problem and found stories from across the country of businesses facing the same issue with their pages disabled and accused of child sexual exploitation.
“Not that it made me feel better, but I was like, okay, something’s going on. It’s not, it’s not me. But it has been a nightmare. It’s been a nightmare. You can’t contact Meta,” Pristo said.
Unable to fix the problem herself, Pristo contacted On Your Side. The news team contacted Meta and explained the situation. Meta said they would look into Pristo’s account and almost immediately restored her pages.
“Whatever you guys did, within hours, everything was back up. Got an email saying ‘you’re good,’” Pristo said.
All of Pristo’s content returned along with her followers, who were relieved to see she is still in business.
“I’m so glad I contacted you and the results were so fast. Like, you guys responded to me so fast and got my results so fast that it was — I mean, it was amazing,” Pristo said.
It appears likely a hacker gained access to Pristo’s account and posted inappropriate content that triggered the suspension. Once Meta determined it wasn’t her, they restored her account.
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