LI Charity Maggie's Mission Locked Out Of Social Media After Hacking Attempt: 'Disturbing'

GREENLAWN, NY — Maggie's Mission, for seven years, has funded pediatric cancer research and helped families who have a child facing a diagnosis.

The Huntington-based charity now finds its fundraising ability crippled after a hacking attempt caused charity founder Donna DeSousa Schmidt to lose access to her Facebook and Instagram accounts, which include her pages for Maggie's Mission.

"Maggie's Mission can't operate without social media," Schmidt told Patch.

Schmidt has lost all access to her Instagram account and pages, as well as her personal Facebook. While the Maggie's Mission Facebook page is still active, she cannot login to access it. She noted her husband, Steve, might be able to.

The Schmidts founded Maggie's Mission in memory of their daughter, Maggie, who died of malignant rhabdoid tumors on June 1, 2017. She was 17. Maggie's Mission has been funding cancer research and helping families in need since 2017.

Donna Schmidt said her accounts have personal memories of Maggie stored, but without her Maggie's Mission accounts, she cannot reach her thousands of followers and supporters.

"If my personal accounts went away, that's one thing, right? That's sad," Schmidt said. "They've hampered Maggie's Mission's ability to fundraise, and that is really upsetting and disturbing to me."

Schmidt said she has had no success reaching Meta Platforms support — Meta is the company that owns Facebook and Instagram. She said there is a 180-day deadline until an account is permanently disabled.

On Oct. 16, Schmidt said she received Facebook messages that two old pages she used to manage years ago had displayed "inappropriate content." She tried to change her password while at her mother's house and was locked out of her accounts.

She was notified that her accounts were suspended because an Instagram account associated with her was found to have violated the rules. The account @broodingdrawbridge63505 was listed as the violating page. Schmidt has never been associated with the handle.

Her Maggie's Mission Instagram page was also deleted as a result of the suspension.

Schmidt said she hopes someone from Meta sees her story and helps, as she feel she hasn't been taken seriously so far. She has not received a case number or help from Meta, she said.

"How much will this hurt us?" she said. "...People need to be able to tag us. We need to be able to share news. It is hampering our outreach."

Meta did not immediately respond to Patch's request for comment.

Maggie's Mission has raised nearly $2 million for malignant rhabdoid tumors pediatric research at Memorial Sloan Kettering; $50K for rhabdomyosarcoma pediatric cancer research at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory; nearly $300K for financial aid of affected children and their families; and more.

Learn more about Maggie's Mission in a Q&A with Donna DeSousa Schmidt here.