Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Facebook deletions, fake accounts and my story.

I feel the need to write and get this out somewhere I I can speak openly without worrying about getting flagged or deleted since there are a few things going on over on facebook right now that have me seriously worried. Please humor my grammar and spelling as I am just going to free flow get this out.

 I had been using an account with the name Lois Carmen DeNominator for years over on facebook rather uneventfully. I joined a craft guild, started an art page and made myself a nice little home there.

  Friday - I am in the middle of a conversation when I am suddenly logged out of the system. When I go to log back in I get the your account has been disabled message. I think whaaaaa?
I click the link for more info which takes me to a page with a link that says I think my account has been accidentally disabled. I click it, they ask for very little info. I hit submit and within an hour get an automated response saying without your id we do not know who you are so you have to send it to us before we go further with this. Once again whaaaaa? but I know the account had a fake name so I let it go.
I start a new account like a good kid with real info my real name and go about trying to get my craft guild and groups back. I did have a second admin on my art page so I did not loose the page. I ask him to add my new account as an admin so I can go back to business as usual. Then he is forced to log out but instead of disabling him he sits at a screen forced to change his name since they have also deemed his name fake so now we are both disabled, I can not access my art page and it just sits there basically dead and headless. This makes me very very sad. I am unsure what to do about it currently as the customer service on facebook is nil and they make it really hard to even find anyone to talk to about anything. How does one reclaim a page or do they now delete it since they deleted the old admin. And me making a new account also goes against TOS so the fact I even did that could get me deleted but with my business there I was having too hard a time just waiting for that email from facebook.
So the weekend rolls by uneventfully.
Come monday more people are learning of the mass deletions going on. Some people act like this was something I was making up or I was over reacting http://www.insidefacebook.com/2012/03/07/facebook-estimates-5-or-6-percent-of-total-users-are-fake-accounts/ so there is some reading for you. Not shocking this comes at the heels of http://www.ubergizmo.com/2012/05/facebook-sued-15-billion-privacy/ the lawsuit and the ipo.

Monday, I am once again talking to people when I suddenly am logged out to have my new real account disabled. I go through the steps like last time not worrying so much since this is the name on my drivers licence it is me to find this time I was sent to a link saying I was deleted for harassment. This is super confusing because I have done no such thing and do not understand at all what I did to have that one come up. So I go through the motions, send them my id and once again here I sit waiting to hear back from facebook. Mind you I still have had no response from them all the way back on friday. I find this infuriating as someone running a business there. DAYS? I was disabled once on google plus, fixed it and was going again in I believe about an hour and a half.

So I reset my ip address and make one final account because at this point I think I am just mindlessly making it worse out of anger, frustration and not knowing what to do. I start this account and I start a new status and I write "This is wenchkin aka lois carmen denominator aka carolyn curtis. Please do not tell people to find me, I was deleted again this time for harrassment and I think I am being trolled and flagged and I do not know why."
within a few minutes a window popped up saying you have posted content that is consider harrassment you must go and delete it now, this was a grey window with only one check box for go to delete it. It took me straight to that status message and yes I deleted it. I wish I had screen capped it because it made my heart sink. Why would someone flag that? wth? and me being made to delete it make me feel like my first amendment rights had just been ripped away by facebook. I do not like it at all not one bit.
Now I currently sit thinking hard on if I just want to delete facebook all together since it keeps deleting me without warning based of being flagged by who I do now know and for what? I feel like facebook currently backs the flagger without even looking into it. I feel they can not protect me and more importantly they do not care to as all my cries have gone unheeded.
I have done nothing wrong to deserve this and I did not harrass anyone. I draw, I paint, I have a tacky sense of humor and I like bad movies but I keep to myself and try to put happiness out in the world just to have it constantly wrecked by others for fun and I feel like I have been left an apathetic exhausted shell of what I was four days ago with still no real answers.

***update***

so here is the answer to my appeal that basically drives home they did expect me to sit there san account while they decide to do with me. Now I am supposed to stay off facebook and never make another account?? I wrote them back again just to see what they say but I hold no hope anymore at this point.

Hi Carolyn,

It is a violation of Facebook’s Statement of Rights and Responsibilities to create and maintain multiple accounts on the site. Additionally, if your account was disabled in the past for misconduct and violations of the Statement of Rights and Responsibilities, you are prohibited from creating another account on Facebook. This includes registering a second account with this or any other email address. 

For more information about our policies, please review the Facebook Community Standards: https://www.facebook.com/communitystandards

Thanks,

Astrid
User Operations
Facebook

7 comments:

  1. <3 Thanks for sharing the whole thing. It makes me angrier and sadder for you. I wish there were a way for you to not take it personally because I believe it's just corporate fascistic bullshit being administered indiscriminately. Regardless, I know I'm new to your acquaintance, but I think you're the bee's' knees and I can tell already that you won't let this keep you down for long. jen

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    1. Many thanks. I am one of those people that believe you have to walk through your pain to get over it. So out it comes. Plus I just wanted others to know what happened all in one place instead of bits of comments all over facebook. I can not stop living because facebook does not want me, lots of other places do :>

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  2. I'm glad you wrote this, Wenchkin. I know facebook also hates blogger links, but I'm going to repost it anyway. I'm starting to get really nervous, and trying to think on how I can plan ahead without facebook.

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  3. <3 you are smart to walk through it, it won't go away until you do. and it's nice for those that care to be able to read what happened in one spot. (and lots of people on facebook want you ;) but i get your meaning)

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  5. No wonder the stock price is tanking. I wonder if this whole deletion of 'fake accounts' nonsense is intentional so someone can snap up a lot of cheap shares. Is that me thinking like a conspiracy theorist or is it just noticing standard operating procedures for corporations ... err, I mean "individuals" these days? *grumble grumble*

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  6. Sorry to here about your FB problems. It seems that their policies are completely arbitrary in most instances. Yet another reason to leave FB for G+. Great blog BTW. Just discovered it today.

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