Meta's automated moderation systems can erase decades of personal histories in seconds, exposing the severe risks of relying on unaccountable algorithms to safeguard digital memories.

Twenty years of my online life disappeared last week in the space of a single notification: "Your account has been disabled for not following our community standards." No detail was provided as to which post was problematic.

I clicked an "appeal" button and 12 hours later was told I no longer existed on Facebook and no further correspondence would be entered into regarding this matter.

Two decades of conversations, photographs of my children growing up, my grandchildren being born, condolences and celebrations from friends scattered across the world, the digital record of a life -- all just gone.

Search for me on Facebook, and you will find I no longer exist. If a friend scrolls back through their activity log, the record of us commenting on each other's posts, tagging each other at the same wedding or graduation, is gone from their side as well as mine. My name has vanished from every photograph anyone ever tagged me in.

I still exist in those pictures, unnamed now, though it isn't hard to imagine what comes next. The same systems used to delete names could just as easily be turned on the photographs themselves, lifting an unwanted face out of someone...