Faulty Meta AI Bans Psychedelic Education and Personal Accounts
While many fight for freedom of speech, psychedelics have always been demonized and censored by the media, whether it’s television, news outlets, or social media, by sharing scare stories to induce fear in the general public that has no education or experience in the subject. With the knowledge we have today and the data we can access, we can say that many of these scare stories were a product of the media, intended to keep people away from these compounds. But what is the backlash of having these substances demonized by the media, you may ask?
Typically, when we hear about drugs being illegal, what the general public will think of is Cocaine, Heroin, Fentanyl, LSD, or Magic Mushrooms (and DMT, if someone is a little bit more knowledgeable). When searching these compounds in media outlets, we will come across stories such as Crack Cocaine user commits violent crime, Fentanyl zombies in LA, Heroin destroying lives, and classic psychedelics such as LSD, Psilocybin, and DMT frying our brains and making them look like fried eggs. However, if we use scientific terminology, and science-focused browsers such as Google Scholar, or even DuckDuckGo, the results may come slightly different, such as:
- “Currently, cocaine and its derivatives remain used as local anesthetics for ear, nose, and throat surgeries and pain management in terminal diseases.” – NIH (National Institute of Health)
- “Heroin is a crude preparation of diamorphine. Diamorphine is an opioid analgesic agent used in the relief of severe pain associated with surgical procedures, myocardial infarction, or pain in the terminally ill and for the relief of dyspnea in acute pulmonary edema.” – European Drug Agency, DrugBank.
- “Fentanyl injection is used to relieve severe pain during and after surgery. It is also used with other medicines just before or during an operation.” – Mayo Clinic.
- “Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) is gaining renewed interest as a potential treatment for anxiety, depression, and alcohol use disorder, with clinical trials reporting significant symptom reductions and long-lasting effects.” – MDPI.
- “Psilocybin has been implemented as a potential therapy for hard-to-treat disorders such as addiction, depression, and end-of-life anxiety.” – NIH (National Institute of Health).
- “The discovery of DMT’s protective and immunomodulatory properties against oxidative stress has heightened interest in its therapeutic potential for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases, brain injuries, transplants, migraines, and chronic pain. Even low, sub-hallucinogenic doses of DMT are suggested to have therapeutic potential for conditions like stroke, anxiety, and neurodegenerative disorders, making transdermal delivery systems a promising, non-invasive method to explore its benefits with minimal side effects.” -Neuropharmacology Journal, Science Direct.
Having media cherry-picking the negative effects and stories related to these compounds not only discredits the clinical potential of these compounds but also proves that there should be something to add to the famous Paracelsus quote, “The dose makes the poison.” That would be: “The lack of education or misinformation about these compounds makes the poison.”
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At the time of writing this article, I can dare to say that the reasoning behind the bad experiences of these compounds, the fact that the Scheduled compounds list is so lengthy, and the reason why science is stuck when it comes to research and development of new treatments for mental illnesses is a result of media manipulation and lack of education by the general public. Unfortunately, the public is not to blame, but the system of education, or lack thereof. As we’ve been presented with fear towards science, instead of having our interest cultivated, this leads to the secondary aspect, the social effects of this censorship.
However, the propaganda and censorship would far from be over. In modern times, we are no longer tied to our chairs watching TV as we were during the early 90s or 2000s; instead, we tend to grab our phones for entertainment and check social media, and this is the key for this article—social media.
Despite living in an era where people fight for free speech, there are still gray areas of topics that people are a little bit iffy defending, psychedelics are one of these topics. While starting to become legal in various states, there is still a thin line when it comes to “Is this teaching too much information about X compound? Can this put me in trouble?”
Surprisingly, most of the time, you won’t be in trouble, as research papers shared globally often cover the entirety of these psychedelics, except step-by-step production, how to obtain or sell these compounds, and how to extract them.
Other topics fall into the following categories:
- Biology
- Botany
- Biochemistry
- Chemistry
- Harm-reduction
- Law
- Organic Chemistry
- Pharmacology
- Subsequent scientific branches of those mentioned above
Those are legal to discuss in broad daylight. But what happens when we have people with no criteria evaluating posts containing information about these compounds, and most importantly, what happens when AI takes over the position of those doing so?
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The answer to this is the point we are at now: thousands of Psychedelic Educational platforms and News outlets that promote their work on Meta-owned platforms are being wrongfully censored, suspended, and even permanently banned, including ourselves, but to understand what may be happening at the most predominant social media headquarters (Facebook and Instagram) and tell our first-hand experience with our wrongful censorship and suspension we must first understand the events that changed what used to be a reliable marketing tool to an AI dictatorship and how this doesn’t only apply to the psychedelic communities but to something much broader happening worldwide.
On May 22nd, I got an email from Meta saying that they were using my information to improve AI at Meta, just like every user does. But something rather fishy came along with that email. Previously, I had declined for Meta to use our content to train their AI, given that we are a registered business and social media is an extension of our assets and intellectual property. (Our decision was overwritten, given the email.) We must note that this decision not only influences our assets but also the credibility and assets of those featured in our short clips — Alexander and Ann Shulgin, Terence McKenna, movies, documentaries etc. Given not only our ethics but also the legal part of copyright when posting videos and clips, we always tag associated pages and leave the source of the videos.
Since we were on vacation, I decided to set the email aside to handle later after we returned to social media. Until another email, two days after, on May 24th, arrived in my inbox:
“Take action or lose access to your Instagram account @psychedelicsasl— Your Instagram account has been suspended. This is because your account, or activity on it, doesn’t follow our Community Standards on guns, drugs, and other restricted goods. If you think we made a mistake, you have until November 23rd, 2025, to appeal.”
Knowing that this was a mistake, I decided to appeal. But something clicked. The fact that I had received a prior email about “Training Meta AI” just two days before this ban.
“Could the AI and my ban be related?” I thought.
I decided to hop on Reddit and check if there was something about this, and god, I was puzzled by the scary sight of, at the time, hundreds of people being banned on a Subreddit entitled. r/InstagramDisabledHelp.
There, I found an interesting article by NDTV World claiming that Meta would be laying off 3,000 employees. To minimize the impact of the lay-off, they spent over $15 billion on AI for content review and account actions.
At that exact time, I understood it wasn’t just another suspension caused by a poor understanding of the content itself (just like many other psychedelic content creators suffer). AI was the reason behind not just my censorship and suspension, but also the suspension of thousands of accounts on Meta-owned platforms.
Understanding the frameworks of AI:
From our understanding, Meta AI typically functions using the following guides: Image Learning, Keywords, Keyword Association, and Flagging. Many of you may not be familiar with these prompts, but I will do my best to share the frameworks of AI in this chapter.
When someone creates a website or platform, they have the opportunity to install plug-ins, which are programmed using one of the following languages: Python, HTML, C++, Java, JavaScript, or a hybrid of these coding languages. Many AI plug-ins are available to the general public, including the small question mark or chat bubble present in pretty much every website nowadays, which will automatically redirect you to a Chabot powered by AI to take you through the FAQ’s. AI has the job of filtering previously solved issues. For example, problems in FAQ’s, to ease customer service.
Tests are conducted on these plug-ins to ensure optimal performance for the public and meet customers’ needs. Key Wording is essential to perform these tests.
Example: “My package says it has been shipped, & it still has not been out for delivery yet. Why is that?”
Keyword- Shipping- Result: Shipping FAQ’s page.
When the website content isn’t present in the question posed by the customer, AI will then attempt to bring the closest entry in the FAQ’s or website content.
Example: “My goods arrived damaged and I can’t use them. What should I do?”
Keyword-Damaged-Result: Not found-Association: Exchange Item/Return Policy
Although far more complex, Meta and other social media using AI to moderate content follow the same principle.
Example: “Learn about psychedelics with us.”
Keyword-Psychedelics- Result: Drugs and other restricted goods- Action: Suspension of the Account, waiting for human review.
Another example: “Today, I spent a great time with my children.”
Keyword- Children-Result: Content with Children- Association: Potential CSE Content-Action: Suspension of the Account, waiting for human review.
We’ve covered how text, such as captions or bios, is moderated via text. Given that Meta platforms such as Instagram and Facebook focus on sharing images and videos. Their AI coding implements a visual learning prompt or Image Tracing, which is where I believe AI still has plenty of flaws, and honestly, lacks internal testing.
Once you upload an image to Facebook or Instagram, your image goes through two main processes before upload: a Pre-Scan and a Main Judgment.
The Pre-Scan classifies Perceptual Hashing (e.g., PhotoDNA-style tools) for known harmful imagery like CSAM and terrorist content, NSFW/Violence classifiers.
And the Main Judgement is powered by FSL (Few-Shot Learner), with the purpose to flag or remove harmful, rule-violating content (e.g., nudity, hate symbols).
Using multimodal embedding (image + text + metadata) with natural-language policy descriptions.
Unfortunately, just like text correlation, AI can misunderstand what the image is about and create a correlation based on the content of other users and their metadata of the upload.
Example: “Image: Psilocybe Cubensis. Caption: “Magic mushrooms can treat medication-resistant depression.”
Image Detection- Psilocybe Cubensis-Illegal Mushroom- Metadata Association: Flagged Content Users attempting to sell Scheduled drugs- Lead: Result: Drugs and other restricted goods- Action: Suspension of the Account, waiting for human review.
Another prime example would be: ” Image: Adult with a kid wearing shorts sitting on the shoulder of its father who is touching the kid’s leg. Caption: I spent an amazing time with my kid today.”
Image Detection- Adult Touching a Minor’s Leg- Metadata Association: Flagged Content Users Mentioning Abuse of Minors or Content related to Child Exploitation- Lead: Potential CSE Content-Action: Suspension of the Account, waiting for human review.
The contrary may also happen. When analyzing an image, AI may incorrectly interpret its content and caption, allowing the account and content to remain active even if they violate community guidelines.
We’ve gotten proof of this last year when the CEO of Meta, Mark Zuckerberg, was attested to court after Meta failed to protect Children’s Safety by feeding them adult content, including pornography, and harm-causing activities.
Once an account gets suspended, the account gets “flagged” by the AI. Flagging means that to make the work of AI easier, the account gets put on a “list” of accounts that made posts that go against the guidelines, this can happen for various reasons, and once it does, the AI goes through a cyclical process within a timestamp selected by the host or programmer of checking accounts previously put on the list, re-check their content and if needed suspend the account once again given their history, or a past-post that was reposted or unarchived.
Example: Account posts something that AI believes to be against the guidelines- The account becomes suspended- Humans review the account and approve that the account didn’t go against the guidelines-AI flags the post overriding human action-Flags the account-Activates a future suspension once there is a new cycle- Repeat process.
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We are currently working on our second book, Entheogenic Synergy. To do so, we need your help. By sharing your psychedelic experience, you will be helping us immensely with our study to prove the theory that external factors before the psychedelic experience can impact the way we trip. You can share your psychedelic experience by accessing our form.
Mass Ban Waves and Meta Fightback:
The current ban-wave situation has led to more than 10 million accounts being wrongfully banned from Meta platforms since the first and second quarters of the year (Q1/Q2), worldwide, due to accusations of selling unregulated goods or drugs, child sex exploitation and abuse, account integrity, and more, leaving users scared with the allegations and frustrated with pre-written texts from Meta Support and no human customer service available for those who have not paid Meta Verified or have spent money on Meta Ads. Users worldwide have gathered in forums and decided to pursue their rights as users and citizens to regain access to their accounts, sharing strategies, filing petitions, and initiating a global class action against Meta and their lack of support towards users, to add to other legal cases regarding Meta AI(including potentially pirating and seeding porn for years to train AI .)
On June 18th, Meta Korea acknowledged the potential for excessive enforcement by its artificial intelligence-driven moderation tools, following thousands of account suspensions on Facebook and Instagram that drew political backlash in South Korea, despite its initial claim that users had been rightfully suspended for such actions. However, we haven’t had a word from the Meta US or Meta EU teams regarding the issue.
I must also add that while roaming through these forums, people were frustrated that members from support didn’t acknowledge the Meta ban wave was a thing, and probably they weren’t lying. I will tell you why.
Just like any large company, Meta has a hierarchy system. Various sub-companies work for them worldwide. Some of these support staff have no ties to Meta HQ or Meta Officials besides the subcontract made by another company. An example is the giant multichannel French company Teleperformance, which hires people to work in the Meta Support Team. Workers have a working contract with Teleperformance, not Meta directly. They have access to a limited platform with tickets that can be answered using pre-written prompts, and they are unaware of what might be happening at Meta HQ or Meta in general. To be able to get in touch with someone who works directly with Meta and is aware of these issues is like finding a needle in a haystack, but not impossible. Unfortunately, we don’t have an answer on how to, besides being lucky. Or attempting to reach out to people via LinkedIn or friends who work there.
Based on our experience in recovering accounts and spending time in the r/InstagramDisabledHelp, r/facebookdisabledme, and r/MetaLawsuits communities, we’ve gathered various information on how some users were able to regain access to their accounts. But please keep in mind that these solutions are temporary fixes to a larger problem. Once the AI cycles back, there is a chance your account will be affected once again.
Our method of recovery:
As previously stated, our accounts have been suspended not only once, but five times in the past two months. We were able to recover them within a space of 2 to 3 days, sometimes, even as quickly as a few hours. The recovery process was simple, but it had tricky steps to find the right solution.
From talking to people within my friend group (whom I would love to thank for the constant support and love), the first thing they told me was to get Meta Verified, as it was the only way to reach Instagram Support. When scrolling through the Subreddit forums, you will likely see that this process doesn’t work, and I partially agree, and I will tell you why.
When I contacted Meta Enhanced Chat Support, the only support option available within Instagram, I received a message stating that my account was suspended for not following community guidelines. Yet after a few hours, my account was reactivated with the following email:
Since the start of the Ban Waves, thousands of tickets were entering in Meta Support, so think of Meta Verified as a way to skip a line of thousands of people given they prioritize users who pay them, I know this sounds very shady, but it’s indeed the truth, users have no way to contact support within Instagram without Meta Verified, the only way users can get a hold of Meta Support without Verified is using Facebook Help, or Facebook for Ads Help, which are likely not centralized in the same office or are the same teams. That being said, once you contact Facebook Support, they will attempt to email the Instagram team for them to investigate your issue. Considering thousands of tickets are entering their mailboxes a day, it becomes impossible to have everyone’s accounts reinstated.
In a conversation with one of the Meta Support Team members on the phone, John, for privacy purposes. We got some little insider information that we would like to share. John claimed:
“Currently, we are unable to fix the issue due to the lack of staff. Support tickets are managed by AI, and during support chats, they use pre-written answers also written by AI (including contacting via Meta verified). We are aware and unhappy about this. We are tired and unhappy with the AI. We need staff to fix it, and it’s impossible to tell you when this will be fixed.”
In another conversation with another Meta Advertising Team, I decided to pitch the narrative whether the censorship and the suspensions could’ve been due to the type of content we create, psychedelic science, research, and news, from which I got the information, that if the content or username wasn’t allowed on the platform, the content wouldn’t even be posted in the first place. The member incentivized me to continue creating for their platform on the theme.
Bicycle day is gone, but we can still celebrate the world of lysergamides!
Methods other users claim to have worked:
While we recovered our accounts this way, many other users reported regaining theirs through different methods:
Filing small claims (US) by going to the county court and requesting to file a small claim against Meta. While many user reports filing small claims are in the US, the situation is different in Europe as under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the ban of a user by AI with no human verification breaches two articles: Article 15 and Article 22, which allow users to legally form a complaint in European Small Claims or file a Data Protection Complaint in their country of residence. European users also claim to regain access to their accounts by filing a complaint at the Appeals Centre Europe.
Once again, I would like to reiterate that these methods are only a temporary fix. The cyclization of AI can suspend your account again after recovery. This has happened several times to users, even those who filed and won cases via small claims.
Distress causes opportunity:
With the number of accounts disabled growing by the day, voices began to be heard, people losing accounts that are assets to their business, making them lose income for months straight, getting in debt, unable to pay workers, and lay off their staff as a result of months of being banned from the platforms, which generated most of their sales and promotion of product release. Educational platforms, influencers, small and medium businesses, news outlets, and personal accounts have been vocal about the financial and emotional impact of these suspensions on their day-to-day life.
Constant distress of frustrated users led to various opportunities of being harassed by the Meta Support employees, who have told them to make another account, that life is not only about Instagram, extortion and even harassing people regarding their physical appearance when attempting to recover their accounts, as well as opportunities of hackers and scammers claiming to be able to recover the accounts of those in need in exchange for monetary value.
Here follow some examples provided by the community during Meta Chats, and a convoy of scamming attempts from one of our posts on the social media platform TikTok:
We would love for users to remain calm under all circumstances and not fall for the traps held by those with nefarious means claiming to be able to get our accounts back, as those can result in a permanent ban and legal conflict, given that hacking Instagram servers to recover an account is an illegal act and if traced back to you in any form will result in a legal dispute as claimed in the Meta page.
Our heart goes out to those who are currently losing their accounts. We’ve done our best to provide the most accurate information regarding the issue in this article. From someone who has also been a victim of this issue multiple times, we would like to leave you with some words from other victims from the psychedelic scientific educational space who had their accounts misjudged and wrongfully banned. Keep in mind that this is a time when communities must unite to fight for our rights as internet users. We hope everyone can recover all of their accounts and contents rightfully.
With love,
Founder of PsychedelicsASL, Goncalo
Testimonials harmed from Meta Ban Wave in the Psychedelic Space:
Mamadelamyco:
@mamadelamyco on socials : BlueSky / TikTok / Instagram (Currently disabled)
“Losing my Instagram at 54k was a devastating blow—financially, it cut off a major channel for client outreach, product sales, and community research. Emotionally, it was heartbreaking to lose a space where I educated, organized, and advocated for reproductive justice and underrepresented voices in psychedelics. After a decade of creating education, I feel like I’ve been in an abusive relationship with a platform that extracts creative labor without protecting or caring for the lives of creators—cutting off access to our audiences and erasing our work the moment we’re suspended.”
Psychedelika Club:
@psychedelika.club on socials: Instagram/ YouTube / Tiktok
“After recurring suspensions over the past years, our account (psychedelika.club) was permanently deleted at the beginning of this year – despite strictly educational content. Although we restored it with legal help, the shadowban remains — severely limiting our visibility and growth. Censorship stifles safe information and silences the very communities working for public well-being. But we are not giving up, this time calls to stand together more than ever, where people are looking for old and new ways to heal, grow and be free.”
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