Phil Weyman, known as Mister Phil, had both his Instagram and Facebook pages suspended in March this year after Meta said it detected a “violation of guidelines”.

The 53-year-old, who lives in Brighton, said he had not done anything to trigger the suspension and had been trying ever since to regain access to the account.

Mr Weyman was able to regain access to his Facebook page, however six months later was still locked out of his Instagram page.

Out of sheer desperation, Mr Weyman sent a letter to Meta’s legal department in California demanding financial reimbursement for the loss of earnings and time, as well as the account being reinstated.

Since Mr Weyman took legal action and The Argus contacted Meta, the account has been reinstated.

Phil designed the wrap for Brighton Fibre (Image: Mister Phil)

He described the impact the account’s suspension has had on business.

Mr Weyman explained ahead of his account being reinstated: “I’m selling prints, putting on exhibitions, I do a lot of commercial illustration and lots of people find me through social media and commission me to do work.

“It’s really difficult because I have accrued followers over ten years.”

He added: “I’ve definitely seen less work and less enquiries.

“In the past everything I had done has links to that Instagram page, so if people come across my work and click on the link and the page does not exist, it looks like maybe I’m not doing it anymore.”

The Instagram account has around 4,200 followers which Mr Weyman has gained through his extensive portfolio of work.

The artist has worked with many clients including Fender, Scouts, Tumblr, The National Gallery and Great Ormond Street.

He also has a large mural in the offices of Unity in Brighton, created artwork and branding for Lost Pier Brewing and designed the vehicle wrap for Brighton Fibre.

Mr Weyman said he made multiple attempts to contact Meta since the account suspension, with all cases having been closed with no resolution to the issue before it was finally reinstated following The Argus contacting the company.

He explained how he also made a new account in order to purchase Meta Verified to access enhanced support but said this also had little success.

The artist criticised Meta’s lack of human interaction when both deciding to suspend the account and the support offered after.

He said: “The whole idea that every time I try to find a reason this happened it says ‘our technology detected unusual activity’, like it’s an automated thing which happened. There’s never any mention of a human.”

Phil’s work displayed in Brighton (Image: Mister Phil)

He highlighted how through his own struggles, he has found many others experiencing the same thing.

He said: “The more people I tell, the more I find that someone else has been affected.

“I go online and on Reddit and it seems to be lots of people in the same situation.”

Meta has been approached for comment.