Georgia man sues Facebook over losing account access and wins
ATLANTA - So many of our memories are captured on Facebook. Baby pictures. School awards. Old-friend connections. What if they were suddenly gone, and you couldn’t get them back? Well, a Georgia man sued the tech giant over just that. And he won.
Jason Crawford was unceremoniously banned from Facebook. He couldn’t log on.
"I woke up one Sunday morning. I tapped on my Facebook icon, and I was locked out," he said from his Columbus, Georgia, office.
He says his Facebook account had been suspended before over his fiery take on politics, but this was different.
"They made it clear I was banned," he said.
He said he only got a quick pop-up that lasted a second, maybe, that said he had violated child exploitation rules.
"It just gave me the briefest snapshot of saying that I had violated their standards on child sexual exploitation. And then it went away," he continued.
Naturally, he wanted that fixed immediately, so he tried to find someone at Facebook to talk to find out what in the world was going on. But finding a human to speak to became impossible.
"What I learned is the way you submit your appeal, or whatever, is through your own profile, your own account," he said. "If you don't have an account, you have no way of submitting it, so it’s like a dog chasing its tail."
So he sued the tech giant.
Facebook is owned by Meta Platforms, and it also runs Instagram and WhatsApp. Meta employs more than 80,000 people. Certainly, the West Cost tech company would have someone who would talk to him.
But, nope, he got nowhere.
"I just think it's bad business practice. It's a crappy way to treat people. At least tell me what I did wrong."
The August 2022 complaint calls Facebook "negligent" for no longer allowing him access to his account "based on a violation that did not occur."
"I had, I don't even know how you quantify it, pictures, videos, posts that you know come up as memories that I like to look at from time to time. Ya know, all that kind of stuff that I wasn't willing to let a bunch of bullies take away from me for no reason," he told the Fox 5 I-Team.
Then he waited. Waited for a call. Someone to clear up this false allegation and give him his account back. But nothing happened.
Clearly frustrated he told us, "It was as if I didn't exist and Facebook was operated by a bunch of ghosts or something."
But Facebook’s legal team not only ignored him but also the lawsuit. The company didn’t even bother responding to it. So, by default, Jason Crawford, a Columbus, Georgia lawyer, won. A judge ordered that Meta pay him $50,000.
That’s when they called.
"I felt a little bit vindicated, and they activated my account again," he said.
Jason Crawford is back online. He says he was told by a Facebook attorney that his account had been hacked. His name was cleared. He also added that had the company responded to him early on, he would've dropped the lawsuit. He was never in it for the money, just answers.
But it’s still not over. He claims Facebook is not paying the judgment.
"It feels like a poke in the eye, and it feels like they're continuing to poke in the eye. Poke the local court system in the eye. Poke me in the eye. Poke other users in the eye, and it’s time that they at least respect our legal system."
So, he’s still fighting. And he says he will get that $50,000 the court says he’s owed because Facebook "terminated" his account for "no valid reason."
The Fox 5 I-Team reached out to a Facebook attorney but got no comment.
As for Jason Crawford, he says he’s owed the money for being ignored.
"Every step of the way Facebook is choosing not to do the right thing."