A growing number of Australian small retailers say their Instagram and Facebook access has been switched off without clear explanations, at the same time as these platforms have become almost unavoidable shopfronts for online brands. Many of these businesses rely on social media for product discovery, customer communication and day-to-day sales, so a shutdown can feel less like a policy decision and more like the doors being locked on a physical store. That tension is now spilling into formal complaints, legal threats and government-level meetings.
One homewares retailer that launched in 2022 claims its business Instagram profile and linked personal accounts were abruptly locked on New Year’s Eve, with no practical way to appeal beyond a generic feedback form. The company, which says it has attracted around 30,000 followers and more than 5000 customers since 2023, is preparing legal action after being told it breached fraud and scam rules related to undelivered orders. The retailer argues the decision followed a customer complaint from an employee of the platform owner and that the ban instantly erased about 95% of its online traffic along with years of brand-building.
Regulators are now being drawn into the dispute. The national small business ombudsman reports that more than 500 small firms sought help last year over similar problems with digital platforms and has written to federal ministers calling for a better appeals process. The ombudsman’s office is pushing for clearer guidelines, faster responses and support that is easy to access when a core marketing or sales account is suddenly disabled. For many of these businesses there is no local contact to call, even when they are paying for advertising and depend on social media visibility to stay afloat.
The platform owner says it is investing heavily in artificial intelligence and round-the-clock global teams to handle account issues at scale, arguing that a mix of automated systems, user reports and human moderators is needed to enforce fraud, safety and content rules across billions of users. In some cases where AI tools misidentified wrongdoing, bans have been reversed and accounts restored, including for a linen retailer and a fitness business that were wrongly accused of posting sexual or exploitative content. However the tech company maintains that the homewares retailer breached its policies after “dozens of signals” from users about failed deliveries and insists personal staff complaints did not influence the outcome.
The bigger picture looks like a collision between two realities. Small businesses increasingly depend on a handful of global platforms to reach customers, while those platforms lean on automated enforcement to police risk at massive scale. This creates a system where a single complaint or algorithmic flag can stall trade, tarnish reputations and trigger months of uncertainty, particularly when help desks sit offshore and appeals are opaque. Unless appeals processes become more transparent and responsive, it seems likely that more small operators will push back through regulators and the courts, even as social media remains the most powerful way for them to find new customers.
