Facebook charity page restored after ban mix-up

Ellie Simpson said it had been impossible to speak to a human being at Facebook

The founder of a charity that supports teenagers with cerebral palsy has spoken about the "nightmare" of being unable to use its Facebook page for more than a year after it was flagged as having inappropriate content.

CP Teens UK, based in Chesterfield, Derbyshire, was set up by former para-athlete Ellie Simpson, who lives with the condition that affects movement and co-ordination.

She believes the social media giant's algorithms mistakenly took the abbreviation CP - commonly used to represent cerebral palsy - to stand for "child pornography", leading to the page being blocked.

On Wednesday the charity said Meta had restored access and renamed the page to Cerebral Palsy Teens UK.

It said it would continue to use the Cerebral Palsy Teens UK name on Facebook and Instagram "to avoid any confusion with unrelated or inappropriate content linked to our abbreviation", but use its official name everywhere else.

Meta has been contacted by the BBC for comment.

Ms Simpson said the charity's account was banned with a message about child sexual exploitation

Ms Simpson set up the charity in 2013. It organises social events and supports young people who might otherwise face social isolation.

Like many charities, it uses social media to keep in touch with followers but has been without a presence on Facebook since April 2024.

'Heartbreaking'

Ms Simpson said she was initially contacted by Meta that month to say the charity's page had been restricted, as it felt the page had been "engaging in illegal activity", which she said she found "alarming".

It was then that Ms Simpson says she got a warning from Meta about the abbreviation CP.

"CP stands for cerebral palsy but Meta believes it's connected to child pornography," she said.

When she challenged this, Ms Simpson said the company accepted the appeal and restored the page but restricted her access, meaning she was unable to update or post on it.

Ms Simpson told the BBC challenges arose from not being able to speak to a human being about the situation and having to communicate with the company's artificial intelligence (AI) service.

"We're all about social connection and meeting people who feel socially isolated.

"So to take this away from us, it was just heartbreaking really, not only for us but for our young people who rely on this network," Ms Simpson said.

Ms Simpson's mum Debbie Simpson says social media is a key resource for the charity

Her mum Debbie Simpson, who also volunteers for the charity, added it brought "everything to a halt".

"We rely so much on social media to get our message across to connect with young people who have physical disabilities.

"They very much rely on social media to stay in touch with the outside world as some of them can't get out easily. It's a key resource for us," she said.

The charity made the decision to step back for a year, as Ms Simpson said they could not operate without the platform.

"We used the difficult circumstances to rejig our services and come back a year later," she said.

"So we would come up with new initiatives, new ways of working, and come back bigger and better in like a year's time."

Ms Simpson told the BBC they considered renaming the charity, but added they did not want to "start again" as CP Teens was "really well known" in the cerebral palsy community.

She added the charity had been working in the background on the Facebook page to prepare for a relaunch.

Then, in October 2025, one week before the charity planned to relaunch, she was notified by Meta that the page had been permanently banned as it had been engaging in "illegal content".

The page lost all its content as well as followers and was told it had no right of appeal, Ms Simpson said.

This was when the charity reached out for help, she added.

The charity said, however, that following further efforts from its network to contact Meta, it was able to restore its account, with a new name.

"It's been a long time coming and it's so good to have our Facebook back," Ms Simpson added.