Over the past few weeks, Pinterest has been severely criticized by users after a large wave of users’ accounts were suddenly banned. These users have voiced their frustration online, especially on social media, describing that their accounts were unfairly flagged even though they did not break any rules or policies.

On Tuesday, Pinterest finally responded with a few posts on their official social media accounts. The company admitted that an “internal error” was to blame for the bans and that their enforcement systems had gone too far. According to Pinterest, the issue came from trying too hard to catch inappropriate content, which led to innocent users being wrongfully punished.

TikTok user @nearlycanadian says, “I’m not banned, but I’m getting violations to my account for pins I didn’t make but saved at some point.”

“…I think it could still be a risk if I don’t go through my entire pin history and delete pins from boards that could be considered suspicious by their programming.”

Many people suspected that AI moderation might have been the cause, especially since Pinterest has recently started using generative AI for users’ data, but Pinterest denied this. They said the mistake was not the result of artificial intelligence but rather a part of their stronger efforts to keep harmful content off the platform. This includes removing more adult or offensive material and improving safety features, especially for younger users. For example, the app is testing alerts to remind teens not to browse Pinterest during school hours.

At the same time, Pinterest has been dealing with a surge in AI-generated content uploaded by their users. Such AI-generated content could be inappropriate or break the site’s rules, and be harder to crack down on. This could have made the platform over-increase the content filters and accidentally ban many users who didn’t do anything wrong.

TikTok user @macandcheese022 says, “I don’t understand why Pinterest is banning people for their saved pins, and even if they are for their saved pins, and even if they are inappropriate, why not just ban the person who made the pin in the first place, not the people who saved it?”

A lot of users who were affected are expressing their dissatisfaction with Pinterest’s response on social media sites, primarily Reddit and TikTok. Some people are even planning legal action, while others are encouraging to file complaints directly to Pinterest’s CEO, Bill Ready, through LinkedIn.

In their apology posts, Pinterest said that they’ve already brought back most of the accounts that were taken down by mistake. They also said they’re working on fixing their systems so this situation does not happen again. If someone still thinks their account was removed unfairly, Pinterest asks that they send a direct message on social media to get help.

Although Pinterest is trying to apologize, many users are still frustrated. Some feel that Pinterest took too long to respond and didn’t explain enough. The company has some work to do to rebuild trust with its users. Now, people are watching closely to see if Pinterest will follow through with their requests.