Mark Zuckerberg is suing Meta: Here's what's happening

An American lawyer who happens to share his name with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has taken the tech giant to court, claiming Facebook repeatedly suspended his account for impersonation.

Mark S Zuckerberg, a bankruptcy attorney based in Indiana with nearly four decades of practice, said his account has been suspended five times over the past eight years. Each time, he was flagged for pretending to be someone else, despite submitting multiple proofs of identity, including his photo ID and credit cards.

According to the lawsuit filed in Marion Superior Court, Meta not only blocked his personal and business accounts but also removed paid advertisements worth about $11,000, leading to significant business losses. "It’s like buying a billboard on the side of the highway, paying the people for the billboard and then they come and put a giant blanket over it and you don’t get the benefit of what you paid for,” he told local broadcaster WTHR-TV.

The latest suspension occurred in May this year, leaving his business page offline for months. Zuckerberg said he followed all appeal processes laid out by Meta but rarely received a timely response. “I filed the proper appeals with them the very next day and I've heard nothing from them and it's been four months,” he said. “The last time they did it, it was over six months before they turned my account back on.”

Meta has since acknowledged the error, reinstating his account after the lawsuit was filed. In a statement, the company admitted his account had been “disabled in error” and said it is “working to try and prevent this from happening in the future.”

Still, the lawyer insists the suspensions have caused real financial and reputational harm. “It’s not funny. Not when they take my money,” he said. “For somebody who purports to be one of the leading tech companies in the world, and they can’t stop doing this? I think they have a problem.”

To highlight the unusual mix-ups, he has even launched a website documenting past incidents, including one case where he was mistakenly sued by the state of Washington. His lawsuit seeks permanent restoration of his account, reimbursement of lost ad funds, attorney fees, and damages for the disruption to his business.