Meta deletes pet adoption organisations' Facebook pages and posts
Hawkesbury Companion Animal Shelter's Facebook page drives 2,000 cats and dogs to be adopted each year. (Supplied: Hawkesbury CAS)
In short:
Animal shelters say their Facebook pages and posts are being deleted by Meta's artificial intelligence tool.
Under Meta's standards users can't advertise animals for sale, but can advertise rehoming and adoptions.
What's next?
One shelter says it is already at capacity after Meta deleted its Facebook page.
Animal adoption organisations are having their Facebook posts removed for breaching the technology giant's community standards.
South-east Queensland animal rescue charity Safe Haven has relied on Facebook to find new homes for 400 abandoned dogs and cats in the past year.
Their 45,000 Facebook followers also regularly banded together to raise thousands of dollars for animals' emergency surgeries.
In the past week the charity has had dozens of posts flagged by Meta's artificial intelligence (AI) tool as a breach of community standards for the sale of animals or animal parts.
Meta's community standards outline that users cannot promote the sale of animals.
It does allow for sales which "promote or offer live, non-endangered animals solely within the context of donations, rehoming or adoptions".
Nicole Manns believes Safe Haven shelter's Facebook page had been "shadow banned". (Supplied: Nicole Manns)
But Safe Haven treasurer Nicole Manns said she had spent days arguing with Meta about how it could get the AI tool to recognise that the charity was offering adoptions.
"It's a really good thing that they're cracking down on the sale of animals online but there doesn't seem to be a way [for the tool] to distinguish between legitimate shelters and dodgy backyard breeders," she said.
Shelter at capacity
A western Sydney animal shelter which rehomes 2,000 dogs and cats each year had little warning before its Facebook page was removed this week.
Its posts began being flagged for the sale of animals by Meta on Saturday. Four days later the page was deleted.
Rob Wainhouse says it's taken 15 years to build up the Hawkesbury Companion Animal Shelter's page. (Supplied: Hawkesbury CAS )
Hawkesbury City Council animal services coordinator Rob Wainhouse was one of the administrators of the Hawkesbury Companion Animal Shelter (CAS) page, which had 78,000 followers.
It is a high volume shelter which provides adoption services for Hawkesbury, Penrith, The Hills, Hornsby, and Cumberland City Councils.
"Facebook is our main medium for advertising animals. Some of our animals will get 1,000 likes and 500 comments in a night," Mr Wainhouse said.
He said he made an appeal to Meta as soon as he received a notification about the account being deleted.
Rob Wainhouse said he's been left helpless in trying to appeal the page deletion decision. (Supplied: Rob Wainhouse)
"[Meta] came back an hour later and it said 'I'm sorry, we've made the right decision'," he said.
"Now the page is completely deleted there's no avenue to request an additional appeal so we don't know what the next step is."
"It's very difficult to recover a deleted page, there's no number to call."
Without Facebook as a tool to advertise adoptions the shelter has quickly hit capacity.
There are 45 dogs and 37 cats up for adoption, including a dozen puppies and kittens.
Mr Wainhouse said that with Facebook's help the animals would usually find a new home in a matter of days.
"It was a great community resource to look on. Now it's completely gone," he said.
Meta has been contacted for comment.