PUTNAM COUNTY, Georgia — A Putnam County auto dealer claims that Facebook's parent company hurt his business by knocking him off line and won't tell him why.
Jesse Dillon Smith and his Georgia Auto Group LLC sued Meta Platforms Inc. last week in federal court.
Smith says he had a personal Facebook account for more than a decade, posting thousands of photos, videos and family memories.
He also used that account to administer his business's Facebook page, Smith's lawsuit says.
But since 2020, Smith's lawyers write, he hasn't been able to access Facebook or post to his business page.
They say he doesn't know why Facebook blocked or suspended him, and he can't find out why.
The lawsuit claims that it has cost him more than a hundred auto sales a year since 2020.
His business has moved to Putnam County, but because he can't update the Facebook page, it still shows a Flowery Branch address.
He's also lost those photos, videos, personal notes and other information "of great and sentimental value."
Smith also says his business page has 9,000 followers and that would be lost if he had to start a new account.
The lawsuit says Smith contacted Facebook numerous times to appeal his removal or get reinstated. So far, he's failed.
"Smith has been unable to successfully navigate Defendant's Kafka-esque process for seeking explanation or relief," the lawsuit says.
The lawsuit references Franz Kafka, an early 20th-century Czech writer.
According to Medium.com, "The essence of Kafkaesque ideology lies in its exploration of the existential anxiety that pervades human existence. Kafka's characters, trapped in bureaucratic mazes, face insurmountable obstacles and navigate surreal worlds where logic and reason often dissipate into a realm of ambiguity and chaos... Kafka presents a bleak vision of a society governed by faceless institutions and oppressive forces, where individuals are reduced to cogs in an inscrutable machine."
The lawsuit argues that the social media giant has been negligent and violated their contract.
Smith wants Facebook/Meta to compensate for his lost sales, at least $75,000, and pay legal fees.
The lawsuit was filed last Thursday in U.S. District Court in Macon.
No trial date has been set.
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