The Story of Facebook Disabling My Account UPDATE: It’s Back!

Today, while on Facebook, I was automatically logged out. Thinking this was just a network error, I typed in my password to log back in. When I hit “Login” I got the picture you see above on my screen. Facebook had disabled my account! WHY?! That is a question I certainly could not answer. For a social network, disabling accounts seems suprisingly unsocial, doesn’t it? Read on to hear my story of a Facebook user’s worst nightmare.

UPDATE: Facebook has agreed to reactivate my account. Read on to hear my story and hear why Facebook decided to side with me.

It was a Friday Morning. Approximately 12:20PM. Miami Beach, Florida.

I was enjoying my Spring Break vacation on the beach. I decided to take my free time and try to revamp GadgetHigh, including the fan page on Facebook. I started by going through the fan list on Facebook and I was surprised to see people on the fan list whom I did not know, about 6. Curious, I decided to send messages to them to see how they learned about GadgetHigh and if they were interested in writing for this awesome website. After breezing through the first two messages, I hit “send” on the third. That was when I received a message asking me to log in. As I have said, I thought it was a simple network error, and I tried to log in. And then the worst thing that could happen to a person on Facebook happened.

“Your account has been disabled,” the sceen read. “NO,” was the first word that popped into my head. Why Facebook? WHY ME? There was no reason given. No explanations, no email, nothing. I looked at my watch, April 2nd it read. Damn it–not an April Fool’s joke. I was filled with anger and confusion, and tried at least 5 more times to log in. Every time I received that same message: “Your account has been disabled.” I tried to keep my cool, but I may or may not have screamed some expletives at my computer. I had questions, comments, and concerns, so I visited their FAQ (frequently asked questions) page to find some answers. I read some of the reasons why an account would be disabled:

Continued prohibited behavior after receiving a warning or multiple warnings from Facebook–I never recieved warnings (or engaged in prohibited behavior, I promise).

Unsolicited contact with others for the purpose of harassment, advertising, promoting, dating, or other inappropriate conduct–all my contact is solicited.

Use of a fake name–I used my real name. But what about seniors applying to college? Every one of them changes his or her name! Those are fake names, but none (that I know of) have been disabled by facebook!

Impersonation of a person or entity, or other misrepresentation of identity–I keep it real. No impersonation necessary.

Posted content that violates Facebook’s Statement of Rights and Responsibilities (this includes any obscene, pornographic, or sexually explicit photos, as well as any photos that depict graphic violence.)–NO WAY. This GadgetHigh site has pictures of naked phones (phones without cases for those of you wondering) but that is all.

Having over 5,000 friends or excessively sending friend requests- let’s be real. I don’t think I even know 5,000 people! Maybe I had around 4,000 friends (that is a lie, more like around 1,000…maybe 900). And I was not sending (or receiving) excessive friend requests.

There were many other offenses, but I digress. I HAVE DONE NOTHING WRONG.

Some of you may be thinking: stop complaining James. Just create another account. One word: No. I am not protesting facebook at all. Oppositely, I have entered the facebook appeal process. I filled out a form, answered a few questions, and sent an email to disabled@facebook.com. Suprisingly, they responded immediately. Unfortunately, the email said nothing informative. The email required that I reply to the email with my reasons for my innocence. Part of the email read:

Lastly, you may not create another account using a different email address while you are waiting for a response. Creating more than one Facebook account is a violation of our Statement of Rights and Responsibilities, and violations of this rule could result in all of your accounts being permanently disabled.

And so, the waiting begins. I have no idea how long it will take for them to reply to my second email with either the good news of my being reactived or the bad news of my account staying disabled. For now, I am staying off facebook. I will survive, for a short time at least. A terrible part of this whole situation is that the GadgetHigh fan page has also been disabled, a fan page that just reached an impressive 100 fans I am still unclear how I will communicate to the outside world without facebook, but I will find ways to manage. I admit, I have already instinctively typed facebook into the URL bar, not remembering my unfortunate situation.
I will be sure to update everyone on the latest news and hopefully this story will have a happy ending.

Also, if this is your first time on the site or if you don’t have an account, please register for an account above.

Please leave all questions and comments below. You can share any of your facebook horror stories or leave a sympathetic note for me.

Let us hope for reactivation.

UPDATE: Madeline from Facebook User Operations sent me an email on behalf of the Facebook Team. Part of it read:

We have detected suspicious activity on your Facebook account and have reset your password as a security precaution. It is possible that malicious software was downloaded to your computer or that your password was stolen by a phishing website designed to look like Facebook.

While I do not think any suspicious activity was going on, I am sure glad to have my Facebook account back. I has been about 6 days since I have gone on Facebook and I am now able to reconnect with the world.

Thanks Facebook for responding to my requests, although this better not happen again.

Click here to go to the GadgetHigh fan page on Facebook and become a fan. As always, register for an account below. You won’t regret it.