Jan 30, 2024 06:00:00

Cafe owner whose Instagram account was deleted for no reason appears in court on his behalf and wins legal battle against Meta

In recent years, the importance of using SNS to promote restaurants and cafes has increased, but if your SNS account is deleted for any reason, it will be a big blow to your store's management. A case in which a cafe owner whose Instagram account was deleted for no reason went to court on his own behalf and won against a large company, Meta, was featured on Seacoastonline, a local media outlet in

New Hampshire , USA. It is being

Teatotaller cafe owner wins Instagram case in court
https://www.seacoastonline.com/story/news/2024/01/26/teatotaller-cafe-owner-wins-instagram-case-nh-supreme-court/72345276007/

Teatotaller, opened by Emmett Soldati in New Hampshire in 2011, gained a reputation as a queer -friendly cafe in addition to its delicious tea, coffee, and baked goods. From the beginning, Mr. Soldati has been using SNS such as Instagram and Facebook as a way to advertise menus and events and discover and acquire customers.

However, in June 2018, Mr. Soldati realized that his Instagram account had been deleted. At first he thought it was a technical glitch, but since nothing changed after 24 hours, Soldati became convinced that Facebook (Meta at the time of writing) had mistakenly deleted the account. Apparently he did. 'I was very worried,' Soldati said. 'People would think that the store no longer existed or that it had closed. Also, we were planning to do shows, events, specials, and other things to engage with our audience. We didn't have any other way of communicating about it.'

Unfortunately, after unsuccessful communications with Instagram's help support, Mr. Soldati decided to file a small claims lawsuit against Facebook in Dover District Court. I thought that if I filed a lawsuit, at least Meta would hear about the problem and either get my account back or get back the hundreds of dollars (tens of thousands of yen) I claimed as a loss.

However, Meta strongly objected to Mr. Soldati's allegations, writing in a book-length rebuttal stating, ``Meta has no responsibility for the deletion of Mr. Soldati's account, and the lawsuit should be dismissed.'' He has submitted a document to do so. This reaction was unexpected for Mr. Soldati, who says, ``At that moment, I felt like I had been hit on a kind of nerve,'' and he embarked on a full-scale legal battle with Meta. Ta. While Meta hired multiple law firms to defend itself, Mr. Soldati appeared on his own behalf to vindicate himself.

When Mr. Soldati first filed his claim in Dover District Court, the case was dismissed under

Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act . Article 230 of the Communications Decency Act is a law often used by platforms to protect themselves from claims related to the publication or deletion of content on their platforms, and Meta has stated that it is exempt from any lawsuits under Article 230 of the Communications Decency Act. ” he claimed.

However, when Mr. Soldati appealed to the New Hampshire Supreme Court, it was ruled that ``Meta is not exempt from immunity under Article 230 of the Communications Decency Act.'' As a result, the case was returned to Dover District Court.

Soldati claims that Meta breached its terms of service by deleting his account without any explanation or warning. In response, Meta claimed that ``Mr. Soldati deleted his account by mistake,'' but Mr. Soldati saved a screenshot from the day his account was deleted, which contradicts Meta's claim. I pointed out that there is.

Dover District Court stated on January 19, 2024, ``Defendant (Meta) provided two conflicting reasons for account deletion and was unable to identify a clear reason for deletion. 'We believe that Meta has fulfilled its responsibility to demonstrate that it did not delete its account,' the court ruled, finding that Meta had breached the contract.

'I was in my 20s when I filed my first small claims case in 2018, and I'm no longer in my 20s. I had hair on my head back then, but now I don't,' Soldati said. Hmm, I'm wondering why it took so long.''

In the end, Meta did not explain why Teatotaller's Instagram account was deleted, but Soldati believes that there was no reason for the account deletion and that it was likely just a mistake. Despite this, the reason why Meta forcefully denied Mr. Soldati's claims and went as far as to wage a legal battle is because Meta acknowledges that ``accounts may be deleted through no fault of their own.'' Mr. Soldati points out that this is probably because it would be a disadvantage to the government.

``If Facebook makes a technical mistake and compromises the integrity of some user accounts, that's a credit risk and a risk to shareholders,'' Soldati said.

The Dover District Court ordered Meta to pay compensation to Mr. Soldati as well as to cover the legal costs, but the final amount was in the range of several hundred to several thousand dollars (tens of thousands of yen to hundreds of thousands of yen). It is expected that it will become. Although the amount itself is not large, Mr. Soldati believes that the fact that ``Meta was not exempted from liability under Article 230 of the Communications Decency Act'' will have a major impact in the future.

'Ultimately, this will be an example to prevent Meta from continuing its practice of throwing thick documents at people, saying, 'We're exempt, so you don't have a claim.' 'Because you can point to the New Hampshire Supreme Court and the Dover, New Hampshire, small claims court and say, 'Judges found Meta didn't pass the test,'' Soldati said.