Lifeline pleads with Meta after ‘mistakenly’ closing Lifeline WA Facebook page

Suicide prevention service Lifeline is pleading with Meta to restore its WA-based Facebook page after the social media giant “mistakenly” closed it down.

Lifeline chief executive Lorna MacGregor said Lifeline WA’s Facebook page had been closed for 36 hours despite a request to review the decision.

“We know that Meta’s decision is a mistake, but we don’t know how to resolve it,” Ms MacGregor said.

“We need Meta’s support to restore the page as soon as possible.”

Ms MacGregor described the shutdown as “potentially life-threatening” and said it had a detrimental impact on Lifeline’s ability to help West Australians “in their darkest hour”.

“Social media plays a critical role in raising awareness of our services and encouraging people to reach out for help,” she said.

“We are also currently recruiting for crisis supporters via a Facebook campaign so to have this interrupted is deeply concerning.

“Every vacant crisis support seat is one less trained volunteer assisting people in their darkest hour.

“The impact of a shutdown on vital, non-profit services like ours is seriously life-threatening.”

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