Banned On Facebook: What Happened, How to Avoid It, and 6 Lessons Learned

What Got Me Banned and How Can You Get the Ban Lifted on Facebook?

I have heard the stories–People sending too many event invitations or connection requests to people they do not know, but I have never worried about those. I am always on great “social behavior”…or so I thought! I was more than stunned to get that “BLOCKED FOR 24 HOURS” message last weekend. I was thrown in the Facebook Slammer! I did HARD Social Time! I was relegated to my Twitter corner on timeout! Okay, so it really wasn’t too bad, but I did learn a few valuable lessons, and like any tragic event in life, we go through them so that we have great stories to tell! Here is mine:

Lessons Learned:

1. When Facebook says no NUDITY, VULGAR LANGUAGE, POSTS OF VIOLENCE, etc.  You really don’t know what that means!  Mothers who have photos of themselves breastfeeding a baby will be banned (if the nipple is showing, but MALE nipples are okay) and that has spawned a powerful uprising of “LACTIVISTS” who will no doubt use their influence to change some of those guidelines, but Facebook allows a photo of a crushed head. No photo of a person going to the bathroom is allowed BUT (pun intended) photos of people smoking marijuana are fine. The lesson is to be aware that the Facebook Police are scanning more aggressively to clean up the town.
2. When you are banned–DO NOT continue to try and log in or post, thinking it is surely a mistake and perhaps this 87th attempt will work!  Multiple attempts during your sentence will extend the punishment.  You could end up with 50 years to life if you don’t just log off and go for a walk…or better yet, log into Pinterest or watch some TikTok videos. Your time will be over before you know it!
3. If you SHARE an inappropriate photo or post that ends up being banned, you will most likely be serving your sentence right alongside your pal that shared it originally.
4. Do not waste your time trying to find a contact at Facebook to plead your case to.  I figured it was a fully automated system and even got a message telling me that an autobot had removed the photo and placed the ban, but later learned that Facebook outsources the task to companies such as Odesk. These companies hire employees overseas making as little as $1 a day to comb through the site policing the over 850 million profiles looking for content that is deemed inappropriate.   Bottom line–there is NOT a person to contact.  You can click all you want on the help links, but you will only end up back at the Community Standards page.
5. If you are using a third-party social dashboard site to post content (Hootsuite,  Tweetdeck, etc ) your API that links that dashboard to Facebook will also be revoked so don’t try digging under that fence.  You will have to Reauthorize your APIs once the ban is lifted.
6. The last thing I learned was that LIFE REALLY DOES EXIST BEYOND FACEBOOK!
   There was a fireball in the sky I hadn’t seen in awhile, and my dogs showed me how to take them for a walk again.  And if all else fails…there’s always TWITTER! 🙂

Let me know if we can help you get out of the Facebook slammer or just the social jungle out there!

Connect with Gina on Twitter @GinaSchreck