It’s the end of an era for me. I’ve been permanently banned from Facebook (and Instagram) after 17years on Facebook with no infractions, violations, or even a time-out. Want to know why?
I used what I can only assume is a banned word. “Cocaine”
A friend shared a post that showed the labelled key ingredients on a bottle of cough syrup from the early 1800s. As you can probably guess, the key selling ingredients are now banned/controlled substances in most places. Here’s the label (Snopes confirms it was a real label):
So, I joked that if they’d only used cocaine they’d have something really great — or something like that. I misspoke – I meant to say heroin since that’s actually still used in cough syrup today (ever had cough syrup with codeine?) I wasn’t the only one making such a comment using said banned word. Maybe they were all turfed too? Maybe it was a slow day for the computer and I lost Facebook roulette. I’ll never know. The computer is notoriously short with details.
Anyway, less than twelve hours after posting the comment I got permanently banned from Facebook. I appealed and that was denied inside a minute. I tried to create a new profile, because I really wasn’t glorifying drug use or trying to sell drugs which is apparently the rule I broke. But that new profile got banned almost immediately.
Tried to login from my desktop, and it asked to scan my face (to confirm my identity of course). Turn your face up, down, side to side a couple of times, etc. So, I’m sure my face has been thoroughly captured and using my face will get any account instantly banned.
There won’t be any human eyes on the problem, and there’s not really any point in arguing or trying to get reinstated. Facebook has had famously terrible customer service for 17years. They don’t care.
I have two groups on Facebook that I use pretty regularly which would be the free group with almost 2K members called Going Deeper With Emotions In Fiction, and I have the closed/private group that I use for my masterclass. People share one or two paras from a WIP for critique in relation to specific lessons on using/editing for deep pov for feedback. So, I’ll have to find a new platform for that.
(If you’re in one of those groups, hang tight. Info is forthcoming.)
Here’s Why I’m Not Super Bothered: I Took My Own Advice
I used to help writers navigate Facebook a few moons ago, and the advice I gave then is advice I’ve followed myself. I have backup admins on my groups, so I’m not locked out. I can get content posted there if I want to. No one can steal my groups (except for the person I trusted implicitly to have my back on this, and I was her backup admin). My primary concern was always being hacked and getting locked out of my groups. Being banned for life was never really a concern that I spent much time dwelling on, because I’m a rule-follower generally.
*shakes my head* Maybe we trust computers a little too much?
My email list was built organically (not through Facebook ads), so I’m not going to miss having access to the ads. I only ever loosely tied my business to those Facebook properties because I don’t own them.
Unfortunately, there are a lot of people I am only in contact with on Facebook. So, that’s sad. I’ve lost all the Facebook memories of my kids growing up, videos of my then 9yo daughter’s first back handspring, back layout — that sort of thing. But I have any of the really important-to-me photos backed up, and the rest was just nice to have. Documenting funny conversations and the like.
It’s a digital age. I’m not hard to find if friends and family really want to stay in touch.
If You Get Banned From Facebook – You’re Also Banned From Instagram
Yep – fun side note. A very long time ago, I fell into the cross-posting craze and connected my Insta and FB accounts. I stopped doing that years ago, and disconnected the two accounts because I didn’t want to accidently cross-post between the platforms. But Facebook owns Insta, and even though the accounts couldn’t post on behalf of one another, the computer didn’t forget they were connected at one point. So, that’s gone too.
You Can’t Just Create A New Account
Because everything is so interconnected, it’s going to be very very hard to create a new account that won’t be flagged eventually and connected to the banned account. I tried a new email, on a new device that I’ve never used Facebook on. I used a photo that partially hid my face. I got the account created, but in about six hours Facebook connected the two and banned the new one too.
I suppose if I was willing to get a new phone number, never use Facebook from my own house (unique IPs), never use a device I’d used for that account, never friended anyone I’d friended previously, or used any photos of my face I might get away with being on Facebook again. But – what’s the point? I guess if you’re really dependent on the ad framework or something it might be worth a try.
I’m just walking away.
So What Now?
Well, I will miss messenger. That was primarily how my family stayed in touch, arranged family gatherings, etc. I will miss marketplace. I’ve bought and sold a lot of things that way. Maybe my husband will let me lean over his shoulder and still have access to those things as an observer.
However, this is helping me to launch the Youtube channel others have been prodding for me to do for years. I can focus more on Pinterest which is actually a really fantastic source of organic traffic for me. I might wait to see the outcome of the Tiktok kerfuffle in the U.S. There’s a Cdn businessman reportedly trying to buy it out – we’ll see. I’ve been invited to try Bluesky.
Because of the tension between the Canadian gov’t and Facebook banning all news networks from posting there, and Facebook’s choice to suppress any political posts, I’ve been using X (Twitter) for news and global events for a few years now.
Anyway, all that to say I’ve never had all my eggs in one basket. My course is not hosted or associated with Facebook at all. My blog is not connected. My email list is grown organically, so I don’t miss the ad reach. In fact, I get very few clicks from Facebook through to my blog anyway.
I was planning to launch a new side business in the spring and Facebook was going to help with that, so I’ll have to give that a rethink. But, there are other options.
Bottom Line: Your time is well spent learning good SEO practices. Never keep all your social media eggs in one basket. Always be aware that:
You are on rented land when dealing with social media and you own nothing. You have no legal rights to anything on the platform. Read the fine print. Your posted declarations of what Facebook can and can’t use or whatever are useless.
Nothing is private, not even messenger texts. There’s an AI bot scanning every single letter you type, every photo you post, no matter where on the platform you post it, no matter what the privacy setting is. All of it is scanned and catalogued. Remember that.
There will not be any meaningful appeal. There are something like 2billion fraudulent Facebook accounts deleted daily. You will not get human eyes on your problem. Just don’t bother trying. You could try paying someone from Insta to help you if you’ve been hacked, but if you’ve also been banned from Insta that makes it harder. Plus, I don’t know what it costs, but it’s not worth it to me.
Know that downloading my data meant I got two profile pics. That was it. No memories, no photos or videos – not even the ones set to private. No archived chats. Chats I had with people who have passed that I had saved. It’s all gone. Backup anything that’s important to you.
Keep an offline copy of your email list just in case so you can rebuild elsewhere.
Youtube here I come!
Keep me on your email list. I was one of your FB followers.
Great! You have to sign up for the newsletter though. If I add you on the backend, I have to be able to prove you asked me to — it’s a whole thing with email consent laws. click on the photo at the top of the sidebar – you should be able to sign up there.
Grrrrr… What a bunch of idiotic Wangs!! I’ve tended in the past couple of years to go on FB less and less. Especially since they started their stupid, non-science Factcheckers. So much unsupported BS from them. Anyway..I loved your course and will sign up on your NL..
Stay strong Lia…you’re definitely the one in the right.
Cheers,
Deb Baker
Thanks. It’s frustrating, but not the end of the world. If this had happened pre-Covid I would have been devastated. Now? Meh. It’s inconvenient, not life-altering.
Wow, I was also one of your followers, and I’m on your mailing list. I hope to be one of your students this year. Another friend of mine just posted on Facebook about how she is going to delete her account and go to Bluesky. Like you, she used Facebook for her business. She is a historical blogger, and her blog is called Dirty, Sexy, History. She’s sent me that picture before. In fact, I think I have it in my archives or on Pinterest. As a writer who was hoping to grow her audience this year, this has given me pause, because I write LGBTQ stories, so if they ban you for showing old cough syrup labels, what are they going to ban the LGBT community for? I find this ironic because there is an article in the Guardian about Zuck’s new freedom of speech and trying to make Facebook more like Twitter. My husband just came in, looked at your email, and asked how can he want to do that, when that picture is clearly freedom of speech? Ironic, right?
I wasn’t banned for sharing the label/photo. Someone else was sharing it from another page. I made a comment on the shared photo and I guess used a word they’ve tasked a computer to search for and ban people for using. Zuck today was announcing the end of the banned words strategy. We’ll see how that goes. But regardless, I’m out. Maybe I’ll see how the winds blow and try to set up a new profile in a few months. But, maybe I’ll just realize who little I used it anyways.
Since you have organic traffic, you can continue using WordPress. How would social media handle malicious reporting? Businesses could slander competitor’s Social media.
I think there are malicious reporting all the time. I suppose my ban could have been a result of that. Who knows. I think the word I used was most likely on a banned word list and the computer followed a set of protocols and no human ever looked at it. It happens a lot. And Facebook has never cared.
It is true that Facebook has never cared. My wife (also a follower of your blog) reported issues that had merit, and then Facebook replied that the posting was not offensive.
I am the administrator of a light classic music interest group, and someone maliciously reported me to FB once. I managed to get that one cleared, but it required time wasted on nonsense. The person left the group after the group’s wide reaction. Thinking now about it, it can be a good starting point for a novel: a family feud on a social media family group, and then the real action escalates!
Lots of built-in tension! Go for it!
Hi Lisa,
I’ve been going through the master class and love it! It’s improved my writing so much! Sorry about your unfair ban.
I deactivated my Facebook years ago because of work, but I’ve taken courses (mainly for art and stuff that relates to my day job) that used Discord for communication and critique. They all dropped Facebook a long time ago. Discord can take a few hours to get used to, but I like it a lot better than I ever did Facebook groups.
Hope that helps!
I’ve only used Discord once. I have quite a few older people who sign up for my course, and they really appreciated the familiarity of the Facebook environment. So, this is a bit frustrating. But, there have been a few over the years who aren’t on Facebook who may now choose to participate in the homework portion of the course.
This is insane Lisa! I already subscribe to your newsletter and have taken your masterclass. I need to do it again BTW. I’ve used Teachable.com for some classes maybe that would work for you.
My course is hosted on Membervault, and it has a community chat feature in beta right now. So, will give that a try since I’m already paying for that service.
Hi Lisa, Congratulations for getting banned from FB. Meta and Bozo are kissing Trump’s ring otherwise known as his butt. So, you’re getting out at a good time. I hope I’m still on your email list.
I hope so too! I love Facebook because of the various communities on there that I’m a part of. I’ll find my way back eventually.
Sorry this has happened to you, Meta is a real bleepshow.
This is something I live in fear of every day — I’ve had weird run-ins with Instagram before (I don’t use my face for my profile so that identity confirmation silliness took forever). Since then I’ve really backed off on posting. So hard to get people to move to an email list when FB suppresses any mention of it on posts now and ads are truly a crapshoot!
I wouldn’t say ads are a crapshoot. I’ve had good success with ads, particularly with extending reach and growing an audience. But it’s also very easy to spend a lot of money on Facebook ads and see zero return. The key is to offer something in return for the email – prequel chapters, alternative POV chapters, maps, insider info, etc. Create a graphic or alternate book cover – idk, lots of ideas come to mind. People are less likely to just hand out an email now. Everyone’s email boxes are stuffed, so you have to give a good reason to add to the clutter. And then you have to stand out!
I’m appalled. FB is nuts. I can’t figure out how to get to your classes. I’ve been following you for a long time too.
Oh – I’m sorry about that. There are links in the sidebar, but here’s the link to the course website: https://deepdiveauthorclub.vipmembervault.com/
I had an Instagram account only to see what my kids posted. I only had one post myself. I just wanted to be a viewer, not a participant. They cancelled my account twice with no explanation. I appealed and was immediately reinstated but a couple of days ago I cancelled Instagram and Threads since Zuckerberg doesn’t want to be bothered fact checking. He’s made it political when I think most of the people on Instagram didn’t have that in mind at all. Cancelled X too. I just have Bluesky. I think I’d rather see your content and others like you in your original unfiltered format, not filtered through some billionaire’s website.
Well, I’m hoping to always have this website up and running. This is (hopefully) the one place you’ll always be able to find me.
I just tried to signup for Facebook. Never been on it and was banned before I could post anything. I think they have me confused with someone else. Can’t call them or anything. Terrible company. Glad I can’t get in if this is how they treat people.
Facebook has had notoriously terrible customer service from pretty much day one.
Sorry this happened to you Lisa. I keep getting temporary bans on Instagram for completely innocent comments on others’ posts (something the algorithm has decided is “spam”) and am also considering whether it’s worth just leaving Meta platforms altogether.
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I use Facebook to create community for my business, so I’m really missing it.
I think I’m already on your list. Is there a way to check?
I’ve sent this post out via email. If you received it, you’re on the list.
Hello,
Wow, the same thing happened to me in the middle of January, for the use of the same word! I was so devastated. Even my IG was taken down. I had a back up account, that I only used on my laptop, with a different email address and name. 10 days later that was taken down. This was Two days ago. Last night I tried using VPN to register and was locked out immediately. I then used my old, old phone and signed up with a new email, named ect. So far it’s working.
I have alot of recovery groups I manage. I count on it all daily. I’m so worried the newest one will be soon taken down as well.
I have no idea if pictures of myself will be detected. I can’t believe the stress just from a social media site. I did nothing wrong either. I could at least take accountability if I did. Thank you for sharing your story. I’m sorry that happened too you.
Yes! I’m sure they have my face in some banned database. I will have to get a new phone number. Lost my IG as well. I am fortunate that I had a page with a back up admin. So that page is still up and the groups I created with that page. As soon as I get back on, I’ll at least be able to pick up where I left off. But ya – frustrating. I won’t be able to use my name, my face. I’ll have to use a SIM with a unique number and IP etc to get back on.
This happened to me today. Facebooks AI bot flagged me for breaking the rules of marketplace. I only have a lamp for sale. A freaking lamp. That’s all it took for them to erase 13 years and thousands of groups. I’m autistic and have one friend in real life. My whole entire social life was based on nerdy group conversations about niche subjects. And now it’s all gone within a second.
It’s like quitting smoking. I know it’s best for me to not use facebook, but to have the rug pulled like this is really hurtful.
Agreed! I was in dozens of groups for writing, sewing and gardening – the collective wisdom I was able to tap into was incredible. I miss that so much!
Yeah Im banned now , but theres no real explanation of why and no real appeals process either . Admitedly I was using it less and less these days but its still annoying . The down side of social media is that people can take what you write and completely twist what youve said..
I just got banned permanently in the first week of January and I’ve been on Facebook since 2008. Took a few weeks to adjust because I was on it everyday but most of my friends were hardly posting the past few years so life goes on.
I was using it for business. But yes, it’s been a good break to reconsider priorities and time use.
Exactly the same for me. Same word too. Completely innocent comment that could be taken the wrong way if you spent less than a nanosecond thinking about the possible interpretations. 15+ years on FB. I was admin of a group with 800K users. We were headed to 1 million. The group will go on without me. I never had an IG account. I doubt I can start one now, at least not with my current phone, laptop, email address, IP address, etc. And if anyone ever posts a photo of me on IG, then I’m probably gone as well. Thinking of getting a friend who doesn’t use FB to create an account for me. Then, from what I hear, you have to let it age for a a few months, maybe even a year, before you go back to doing anything that you used to do.
Same thing just happened to me . used the word cocaine in a joke. Hammer dropped almost immediately same thing, had a clean driving record for 15 years with them. not even a warning. It was becoming a cesspool of divicivness anyway. nothing but ads and extreme opinions.
I miss the groups. I learned how to sew and quilt and fit clothing well through help on Facebook groups. There were a lot of groups that I desperately miss. Definitely feels unfair. Sorry this happened to you too.
Sorry you got banned. It worries me though- as most of my posts are about illicit drugs due to my book. But as an fyi- heroin and codeine are not the same, other than that they are both opioids (as are opium, fentanyl and Oxy).
Heroin was used in cough syrups and other pain relievers long ago, but was abandoned when the addiction levels became apparent. Codeine cough syrup remains on the market-at least in the USA- but in limited use due to abuse (as in Lean or Syrup) and a genetic predisposition of overdose and death in children. It is chemically similar to heroin but different, is less potent ,and has a much lower addiction rate than heroin. I hope that helps-opioids can be so confusing.
I hope Facebook un-bans you soon!
Facebook won’t ever unban me. 🙁 Yes, I’m aware of the differences. It was a flippant remark made without a lot of thought in an attempt to be funny. Turns out AI is not very good with sarcasm.
I understand what you’re going thru! They did this to me on Meta back in 2019 and I have NEVER been able to use the apps normally again. I can create accounts on FB and IG. I’m able to friend/follow people, post content, etc. But I’m always under an ongoing shadow ban that will kick up almost as soon as I start posting content. The majority of my followers will not see my content, making it pointless. There really is no way out once they’ve done this to you as after over half a decade I’m still in the same spot on these apps. Meta is an absolute monopoly and censorship machine and the company needs to be uprooted ASAP.
Facebook got me through some very hard years, and I was always very careful to follow the rules (I was aware of). So, this definitely feels unfair. But, I am trying to make lemonade from lemons and find new ways to connect with people.
Lisa, you just popped into my head this evening and I realized I hadn’t seen any FB posts from you for a while. I’m sorry to hear of this absurd situation.
Hey!! Thanks for looking me up. It is silly, but if there were fewer bad actors and politics involved maybe these measures wouldn’t be needed.