ALAN ZISMAN ON
TECHNOLOGY
What if your Facebook account was shut down?
-- Here's what happened to me
By Alan Zisman © 2025-11-21
I've had a love-hate relationship with Facebook for a long time. On the one hand, I know it is a massive time sink and resent how every time the user interface and settings change, they seem to change things for the worse. And don't even get me started on their special war on their Canadian users.
On the other hand, itremains a way I'm able to stay in touch with a bunch of people and to publicize events I organize or want to support.I administer half a dozen or so 'pages' and moderate about the same number of 'groups' on Facebook. (Confused about the difference between pages and groups? You're not alone!)
And Facebook Marketplace has overtaken Craigslist as a widely popular way to buy and sell a vast array of local second-hand stuff.
So despite everything, I do check my Facebook feed a couple of times a day - generally using the 'secret' https://www.facebook.com/?sk=h_chr URL which mostly bypasses Facebook's 'Top Stories' algorithm and instead shows what the folks you're following have posted with far less 'recommended' content. (Feel free to give it a try - though note that it only works on a laptop or desktop computer in a web browser, not on a phone or tablet).
Needless to say, I was a surprised when, about a month ago, I received an email from security@facebook.com:
Yes, it seemed to be a real Facebook email. It claimed my account had not followed Facebook's 'Community Standards' - a phrase that Facebook uses to justify taking action - or not taking action - against users who for a wide variety of vague and poorly explained reasons. The word 'cybersecurity' linked to a Meta (Facebook's larger corporate entity) pagetitled 'Cybersecurity' which explained that trying to hack other users accounts was not acceptable.
That's not something I had have been doing - though I have written in this blog about how users can protect themselves from Facebook hackers and cloners - and have replied to my Facebook friends when their accounts have been cloned.
First step, though - let's see if I can actually get onto my Facebook account - Nope, I'm locked out both using a web browser on a laptop and using the Facebook app on my phone and tablet. Seems I'm locked out real! Besides missing out on friends' birthday wishes, more importantly, this means I can't access the pages and groups I administer or moderate.
On the suspension email, there is mention of the possibility of appealing the decision. The email included a big blue button with the word "Appeal' on it.
The process turned out to be very simple - there's no need to justify my innocence, which would be difficult with no real reason given for the suspension. Just a few clicks and I've requested a review. Presumably that means a human rather than an algorithm reviewing my account.
I know a few folks who have gotten 30-day suspensions for violating community standards where the offense seems to have been posting too many left-wing posts.
In my case, though, whatever the process was, it was relatively quick and successful. The next day, I got another email:
And yes, I could once again log back onto Facebook just as if I'd never been locked out. When I logged in, I saw a notification that may have bearing on this story.
Does this mean that some stranger had tried to log-into my Facebook account? When that happens, two-factor authentication means that they're asked for an authentication code - and that I receive a message notifying me of a log-in attempt and asking if it was me.
Perhaps I was busy or off-line and didn't reply to that message and as a result my account was 'temporarily locked'.
Or maybe that log in attempt was actually me trying to log into my account after receiving the email that my account had been suspended - for some other mysterious reason.
Because Facebook is so vague and unaccountable, I'd be surprised if I ever find out!
What I probably should do - create a secondary Facebook account and set it as co-administrator/co-moderator of the various pages and groups in which I play a role... that way, if the faceless Facebook algorithms decide to suspend my mail account again, I have a way to remain active. (2025-11-22 - I've done this, setting the new account up to manage my various FB groups and pages).
As well, if I (or you) have content on Facebook - photos, messages, or more, we all should download an archive of all our photos and other content.
Also, maybe you and I should both take a look at the Change.org petition:
Meta Wrongfully Disabling Accounts with No Human Customer Support (2025-11-22 - I've signed and contributed).
2025-11-22 - I thought this story was over, but no!
After posting this story on my websit yesterdaye, I posted a link to it - with a brief explanation - in my Facebook account. This morning, when I opened my Facebook account, I was greeted with a notification that my post from the day before had been removed.
Why? Apparently, it 'goes against our Community Standards on cybersecurity' by (perhaps) trying to gather sensitive information from others. (It didn't!)
Once again, I clicked on a link to 'Request review'. That process asked two simple questions - with a cheerful image along the side.
I could have picked any of their answers - for the first question, I answered that 'You misunderstood this post' - which I think is accurate. Continuing, we see:
So what should 'we' (i.e. Facebook) know about my post? Again, most of the answers could apply. I picked that 'it was to raise awareness'. And continue.
Facebook summarized my responses and said they would get back to me - my case will be looked at 'by our technology or a reviewer' - i.e. maybe a person will deal with it, but maybe not.
There was one more concluding dialogue box that said nothing new, but when I closed it, I got another notification - my account now had a set of restrictions applied:
Frankly, they're nothing I particularly care about - and they're for 30 days in any case. But it's important that revenge be seen to be taken, I suppose.
Let's see how this saga plays out!
2025-11-23 It ain't over til it's over:
Another morning, another set of mysterious Facebook notifications. When I logged back into Facebook, I got a cheery, positive-sounding message from the Facebook algorithms:
My profile is recommendable! But wait - something called 'Moderation Assist' can prevent offensive and harmful comments. Facebook suggests I turn it on.
I clicked the arrow.
Some issues? Okay, let's click the button to see what they mean.
Oh - buried several levels deep I get to discover that they had apparently followed up on my request that they review their decision to remove my post and have restored it - and in fact it now seems to be visible again. But instead of explaining why it was restored, their text on 'Why this happened' only repeats the 'this goes against our Community Standards on cybersecurity' original justification for removing hte post.
Clicking 'Review Complete > ':
'We found our technology made a mistake.... thank you for taking the time to request a review and helping us improve out systems...'
You're welcome Facebook. Let's go back a step by clicking the arrow in the top-left corner.
They seem to be referring to the various 30-day restrictions that they put on my profile as a result of their algorithm removing my post. Since the post has now been restored and they sort of apologized, have the restrictions been removed? It doesn't look like it:
So - my 'account looks good! Thanks for sticking to the rules...'. But the various restrictions remain in place.
Clicking on the arrow besides each of the restrictions opens another page (I'm going to skip the screen capture this time) explaining that this is the result of the post being removed - with no mention that it was restored.
There's a 'Take Action' button at the bottom of the page that doesn't seem to have any way to take action, except perhaps request a review of the post removal - which has already been done (with the post restored!)
So that's the current status - Facebook restored the post, sort of apologized, but hasn't gotten around to removing the restrictions that it added.
As well, it claims to be 'recommending' my profile, it suggests I turn on something called 'Moderation Assist'. So I clicked on the arrow beside that recommendation.
Let's go!
So apparently, this is a feature of something called my 'professional dashboard' which I didn't know I had - do you?
It's suggesting I let Facebook set up a 'virtual moderator' for my account, pages, and groups so that if anyone with no Facebook friends or followers tries to comment on any posts, their post will be auto-hidden.
This doesn't seem particularly malicious, since anyone lacking friends/followers is either a brand-new Facebook user or - more likely - a bot. But this hasn't been a problem in my account or in groups and pages that I manage. So - at least for now - I'm not enabling it. Moderation Assist, no thanks.
I suspect this is not the end of the story.
Stay tuned!
2025-11-27 Round and round we go....
A few days not hearing anything from Facebook - I suppose it was too much to imagine we were done with this dance.
This morning, an email send last night:
Okay, here we go again.... click View Details:
And See why:
Same restrictions - just starting a few days later, and therefore ending a few days later. In one of the pages, there (again) was a link to request a review, with the same options as before. I clicked it, and answered the two multiple-choice questions. So round and round we go. Maybe it I don't post on Facebook, this will let this particular dance with the algorithms finally wind down.
2025-11-28:
This morning Facebook's notifications informed me that Facebook did not restore my post, inviting me to click to see why:
When I clicked, however, I was greeted with this cheery message:
So, depending where I look, either my post was not restored or it was. Either the 'technology' made a mistake or it didn't.
Moreover, my profile, which would no longer be recommended (again) yesterday, would now be recommended.
Do you get the feeling that Facebook has trouble making up its mind?
2025-12-10
Nothing further for me to report from Facebook - but a friend sent me a seemingly replated email he'd received - I've edited out his name and email address:
Scary stuff, right? Presumably, he could click on the big blue Fix Issue button and try to appeal, as I'd done.
But not so fast - let's look again at some things about the email. Right up near the top, we can see who seems to have sent the message. It says: From: Meta for Business - that seems right. But what's that address beside it - a hotmail.com email address. Would Facebook/Meta be sending mail from a Hotmail account?
Somehow, I doubt it.
And when - in the forwarded message, I hovered my laptop's trackpad pointer over that big blue Fix Issue button - showing the target for that button, it showed a web address that started: https://m.me/7371815
Again, not a Meta/Facebook page.
A scam - an attempt to capture log in name and password. So once again, check before you click. My friend realized it was a scam and didn't fall for it. Hopefully you won't as well.
Older blog postings....
What if your Facebook account was shut down?
-- Here's what happened to me
By Alan Zisman © 2025-11-21
I've had a love-hate relationship with Facebook for a long time. On the one hand, I know it is a massive time sink and resent how every time the user interface and settings change, they seem to change things for the worse. And don't even get me started on their special war on their Canadian users.
On the other hand, itremains a way I'm able to stay in touch with a bunch of people and to publicize events I organize or want to support.I administer half a dozen or so 'pages' and moderate about the same number of 'groups' on Facebook. (Confused about the difference between pages and groups? You're not alone!)
And Facebook Marketplace has overtaken Craigslist as a widely popular way to buy and sell a vast array of local second-hand stuff.
So despite everything, I do check my Facebook feed a couple of times a day - generally using the 'secret' https://www.facebook.com/?sk=h_chr URL which mostly bypasses Facebook's 'Top Stories' algorithm and instead shows what the folks you're following have posted with far less 'recommended' content. (Feel free to give it a try - though note that it only works on a laptop or desktop computer in a web browser, not on a phone or tablet).
Needless to say, I was a surprised when, about a month ago, I received an email from security@facebook.com:
Yes, it seemed to be a real Facebook email. It claimed my account had not followed Facebook's 'Community Standards' - a phrase that Facebook uses to justify taking action - or not taking action - against users who for a wide variety of vague and poorly explained reasons. The word 'cybersecurity' linked to a Meta (Facebook's larger corporate entity) pagetitled 'Cybersecurity' which explained that trying to hack other users accounts was not acceptable.
That's not something I had have been doing - though I have written in this blog about how users can protect themselves from Facebook hackers and cloners - and have replied to my Facebook friends when their accounts have been cloned.
First step, though - let's see if I can actually get onto my Facebook account - Nope, I'm locked out both using a web browser on a laptop and using the Facebook app on my phone and tablet. Seems I'm locked out real! Besides missing out on friends' birthday wishes, more importantly, this means I can't access the pages and groups I administer or moderate.
On the suspension email, there is mention of the possibility of appealing the decision. The email included a big blue button with the word "Appeal' on it.
The process turned out to be very simple - there's no need to justify my innocence, which would be difficult with no real reason given for the suspension. Just a few clicks and I've requested a review. Presumably that means a human rather than an algorithm reviewing my account.
I know a few folks who have gotten 30-day suspensions for violating community standards where the offense seems to have been posting too many left-wing posts.
In my case, though, whatever the process was, it was relatively quick and successful. The next day, I got another email:
And yes, I could once again log back onto Facebook just as if I'd never been locked out. When I logged in, I saw a notification that may have bearing on this story.
Does this mean that some stranger had tried to log-into my Facebook account? When that happens, two-factor authentication means that they're asked for an authentication code - and that I receive a message notifying me of a log-in attempt and asking if it was me.
Perhaps I was busy or off-line and didn't reply to that message and as a result my account was 'temporarily locked'.
Or maybe that log in attempt was actually me trying to log into my account after receiving the email that my account had been suspended - for some other mysterious reason.
Because Facebook is so vague and unaccountable, I'd be surprised if I ever find out!
What I probably should do - create a secondary Facebook account and set it as co-administrator/co-moderator of the various pages and groups in which I play a role... that way, if the faceless Facebook algorithms decide to suspend my mail account again, I have a way to remain active. (2025-11-22 - I've done this, setting the new account up to manage my various FB groups and pages).
As well, if I (or you) have content on Facebook - photos, messages, or more, we all should download an archive of all our photos and other content.
Also, maybe you and I should both take a look at the Change.org petition:
Meta Wrongfully Disabling Accounts with No Human Customer Support (2025-11-22 - I've signed and contributed).
2025-11-22 - I thought this story was over, but no!
After posting this story on my websit yesterdaye, I posted a link to it - with a brief explanation - in my Facebook account. This morning, when I opened my Facebook account, I was greeted with a notification that my post from the day before had been removed.
Why? Apparently, it 'goes against our Community Standards on cybersecurity' by (perhaps) trying to gather sensitive information from others. (It didn't!)
Once again, I clicked on a link to 'Request review'. That process asked two simple questions - with a cheerful image along the side.
I could have picked any of their answers - for the first question, I answered that 'You misunderstood this post' - which I think is accurate. Continuing, we see:
So what should 'we' (i.e. Facebook) know about my post? Again, most of the answers could apply. I picked that 'it was to raise awareness'. And continue.
Facebook summarized my responses and said they would get back to me - my case will be looked at 'by our technology or a reviewer' - i.e. maybe a person will deal with it, but maybe not.
There was one more concluding dialogue box that said nothing new, but when I closed it, I got another notification - my account now had a set of restrictions applied:
Frankly, they're nothing I particularly care about - and they're for 30 days in any case. But it's important that revenge be seen to be taken, I suppose.
Let's see how this saga plays out!
2025-11-23 It ain't over til it's over:
Another morning, another set of mysterious Facebook notifications. When I logged back into Facebook, I got a cheery, positive-sounding message from the Facebook algorithms:
My profile is recommendable! But wait - something called 'Moderation Assist' can prevent offensive and harmful comments. Facebook suggests I turn it on.
I clicked the arrow.
Some issues? Okay, let's click the button to see what they mean.
Oh - buried several levels deep I get to discover that they had apparently followed up on my request that they review their decision to remove my post and have restored it - and in fact it now seems to be visible again. But instead of explaining why it was restored, their text on 'Why this happened' only repeats the 'this goes against our Community Standards on cybersecurity' original justification for removing hte post.
Clicking 'Review Complete > ':
'We found our technology made a mistake.... thank you for taking the time to request a review and helping us improve out systems...'
You're welcome Facebook. Let's go back a step by clicking the arrow in the top-left corner.
They seem to be referring to the various 30-day restrictions that they put on my profile as a result of their algorithm removing my post. Since the post has now been restored and they sort of apologized, have the restrictions been removed? It doesn't look like it:
So - my 'account looks good! Thanks for sticking to the rules...'. But the various restrictions remain in place.
Clicking on the arrow besides each of the restrictions opens another page (I'm going to skip the screen capture this time) explaining that this is the result of the post being removed - with no mention that it was restored.
There's a 'Take Action' button at the bottom of the page that doesn't seem to have any way to take action, except perhaps request a review of the post removal - which has already been done (with the post restored!)
So that's the current status - Facebook restored the post, sort of apologized, but hasn't gotten around to removing the restrictions that it added.
As well, it claims to be 'recommending' my profile, it suggests I turn on something called 'Moderation Assist'. So I clicked on the arrow beside that recommendation.
Let's go!
So apparently, this is a feature of something called my 'professional dashboard' which I didn't know I had - do you?
It's suggesting I let Facebook set up a 'virtual moderator' for my account, pages, and groups so that if anyone with no Facebook friends or followers tries to comment on any posts, their post will be auto-hidden.
This doesn't seem particularly malicious, since anyone lacking friends/followers is either a brand-new Facebook user or - more likely - a bot. But this hasn't been a problem in my account or in groups and pages that I manage. So - at least for now - I'm not enabling it. Moderation Assist, no thanks.
I suspect this is not the end of the story.
Stay tuned!
2025-11-27 Round and round we go....
A few days not hearing anything from Facebook - I suppose it was too much to imagine we were done with this dance.
This morning, an email send last night:
Okay, here we go again.... click View Details:
And See why:
Same restrictions - just starting a few days later, and therefore ending a few days later. In one of the pages, there (again) was a link to request a review, with the same options as before. I clicked it, and answered the two multiple-choice questions. So round and round we go. Maybe it I don't post on Facebook, this will let this particular dance with the algorithms finally wind down.
2025-11-28:
This morning Facebook's notifications informed me that Facebook did not restore my post, inviting me to click to see why:
When I clicked, however, I was greeted with this cheery message:
So, depending where I look, either my post was not restored or it was. Either the 'technology' made a mistake or it didn't.
Moreover, my profile, which would no longer be recommended (again) yesterday, would now be recommended.
Do you get the feeling that Facebook has trouble making up its mind?
2025-12-10
Nothing further for me to report from Facebook - but a friend sent me a seemingly replated email he'd received - I've edited out his name and email address:
Scary stuff, right? Presumably, he could click on the big blue Fix Issue button and try to appeal, as I'd done.
But not so fast - let's look again at some things about the email. Right up near the top, we can see who seems to have sent the message. It says: From: Meta for Business - that seems right. But what's that address beside it - a hotmail.com email address. Would Facebook/Meta be sending mail from a Hotmail account?
Somehow, I doubt it.
And when - in the forwarded message, I hovered my laptop's trackpad pointer over that big blue Fix Issue button - showing the target for that button, it showed a web address that started: https://m.me/7371815
Again, not a Meta/Facebook page.
A scam - an attempt to capture log in name and password. So once again, check before you click. My friend realized it was a scam and didn't fall for it. Hopefully you won't as well.
Older blog postings....
| About This Blog... I've been writing about computers, software, Internet and the rest of technology since 1992, including a 17 year (1995-2012) stint as 'High Tech Office' columnist for Business in Vancouver. This blog includes thoughts on technology, society, and anything else that might interest me. Comments, emailed to alan@zisman.ca are welcome - and may be published in whole or part. You can follow me on Facebook for notice of new blog postings. |
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