ChatGPT Directs Frustrated Tech Users to Email 404 Media for Customer Support
Published · curated by AI Is Going Just Great
Source: 404media.co ↗
"You have lost access not merely to a social media profile, but potentially to years of personal photographs, videos, conversations, and memories."
When a man in Russia lost access to 13 years of Instagram photos after an automated ban, he asked ChatGPT how to get his account back. The bot walked him through Meta's standard appeal process, concluded that emailing Meta directly was "probably not possible," and then suggested he contact journalists instead — specifically recommending 404 Media, providing reporter Jason Koebler's email address, and writing the pitch email for him.
404 Media says this has been happening repeatedly over the past few weeks. Users with ordinary tech-support problems are being told by ChatGPT that their situations are journalistically significant and that a niche tech outlet is the right escalation path. The underlying dynamic is straightforward enough: large platforms have effectively eliminated human customer support, ChatGPT fills the vacuum, and its solution to "I can't reach a human at Meta" is apparently "try a journalist."