The Bellmore Parents Facebook page, a longtime online forum for local families, has been paused after its sole administrator’s Meta account was disabled — a consequence he says stems from what he believes was an automated error tied to another community group he helps manage.
David Tyskowski, who has lived in Bellmore for more than a decade, has overseen the Bellmore Parents page for about seven years. The group, founded 10 years and grew to roughly 12,000 members, served as a forum for residents to share recommendations, advice, and information on local events and services.
Last week, members noticed the group was no longer accessible. The page currently displays a notice indicating it has been paused by its administrator — which Tyskowski says he did not do.
“The only explanation I can come up with is that, since I’m the only admin and my account was disabled, the system automatically shut the group down,” Tyskowski said.
The issue mirrors one experienced by Eric Dobson, a moderator of “I Grew Up in Arlington,” a 15-year-old Facebook group with about 25,000 members that shares memories of growing up in Arlington, Va. That group was removed after Meta flagged it for child exploitation — a determination Dobson says was mistaken.
In a phone interview, Dobson described the difficulty in appealing the decision. He tried reaching Meta through help emails, appeals, and oversight channels, but received no responses.
“I feel totally abandoned,” he said. “I feel like I’ve let my people down by this group disappearing and not being able to put it back up.”
He also questioned Facebook’s reliance on automated moderation.
“Technology companies have created this AI and are forcing people to use it, and it is just riddled with errors,” Dobson said. “A human being would never have made that mistake, because they would have seen what the pictures were and the dates. All the pictures — just completely harmless, nostalgic photos.”
Tyskowski said the problem for him began earlier this month with the Arlington group. He believes Facebook’s artificial intelligence moderation mistakenly interpreted posts showing decades-old youth sports photos as violating its policies.
“These were people posting pictures of themselves from the 1970s and 1980s,” he said. “Completely harmless, nostalgic photos.”
Tyskowski said he regained limited access through an older Meta account and signed up for Meta Verified to reach human support. Despite providing identification and responding to questions from support staff, he said he was told his account would remain disabled for violating Facebook’s advertising policy — a conclusion he and others find confusing.
“It’s a big swing. From child exploitation to advertising? I don’t advertise anything. None of this makes sense,” he said.
Similar complaints have emerged across the country, with users reporting their accounts were wrongfully disabled or suspended. Cases have included a mother and daughter in Pennsylvania, a college student in Maryland, and small business owners in Australia, all alleging false accusations of sharing child exploitation content.
Because Tyskowski is the only administrator of the Bellmore Parents page, its fate appears tied directly to his disabled account. He said he has received no direct communication from Meta about the group itself, leaving its future uncertain.
“These groups are community assets,” Tyskowski said. “Especially on Long Island, parents use them to find plumbers, hairdressers, lawn services — real feedback from real neighbors.”
Tyskowski and other affected administrators say the situation highlights broader concerns over Facebook’s reliance on automated moderation systems and the difficulties in appealing decisions.
“All we needed was a human being to look at this,” he said. “Anyone would see there was nothing wrong.”
Tyskowski said he is considering seeking legal advice after exhausting available support options.
“It feels like they want you to build your community on their platform, and then they can just take it away with no explanation and no recourse,” he said.
Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, did not respond to requests for comment on this story.
