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Lisa Hall-Wilson

Dive Into The Soul Of Storytelling With Deep Point Of View

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Lisa Hall-Wilson

Dive Into The Soul Of Storytelling With Deep Point Of View

Banned From Facebook And Instagram – And You’re Next!

Posted on January 7, 2025January 7, 2025 By Lisa Hall-Wilson

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.

Screenshot from Facebook of banned account. It says: We've disabled your account because it "doesn't follow our community standards on guns, drugs and other restricted goods."
Screenshot from Instagram that has Lisa's profile picture and text that says, "we disabled your account" and the reason given is "your account, or activity on it, doesn't follow our community standards"

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!

Business Of Writing Facebookwriting fiction

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Comments (75)

  1. Gretchen Carlson says:
    January 7, 2025 at 6:24 pm

    Keep me on your email list. I was one of your FB followers.

    Reply
    1. Lisa Hall-Wilson says:
      January 7, 2025 at 6:25 pm

      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.

      Reply
      1. DJ KO says:
        October 10, 2025 at 5:27 pm

        Meta is absolute trash and soc media is becoming more and more censored and regulated like china and North Korea do

        Even YouTube is going down the same path by censoring comments and videos now

        Absolutely disgusting

        Reply
        1. Lisa Hall-Wilson says:
          November 7, 2025 at 3:18 pm

          We do need some censoring – I mean, pornography (of any stripe), graphic violence, etc. But keeping up with all the banned words is tiresome for sure.

          Reply
  2. Deb Baker says:
    January 7, 2025 at 6:48 pm

    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

    Reply
    1. Lisa Hall-Wilson says:
      January 7, 2025 at 6:50 pm

      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.

      Reply
  3. Tricia Lynne says:
    January 7, 2025 at 7:59 pm

    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?

    Reply
    1. Lisa Hall-Wilson says:
      January 7, 2025 at 8:18 pm

      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.

      Reply
  4. Paul Roos says:
    January 7, 2025 at 11:28 pm

    Since you have organic traffic, you can continue using WordPress. How would social media handle malicious reporting? Businesses could slander competitor’s Social media.

    Reply
    1. Lisa Hall-Wilson says:
      January 8, 2025 at 4:17 pm

      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.

      Reply
      1. Paul Roos says:
        January 9, 2025 at 12:41 am

        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!

        Reply
        1. Lisa Hall-Wilson says:
          January 12, 2025 at 4:34 pm

          Lots of built-in tension! Go for it!

          Reply
  5. Phoebe K says:
    January 8, 2025 at 11:35 am

    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!

    Reply
    1. Lisa Hall-Wilson says:
      January 8, 2025 at 4:15 pm

      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.

      Reply
  6. Jeri Hoag says:
    January 8, 2025 at 3:54 pm

    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.

    Reply
    1. Lisa Hall-Wilson says:
      January 8, 2025 at 4:14 pm

      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.

      Reply
  7. Elizabeth Gibson says:
    January 8, 2025 at 7:51 pm

    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.

    Reply
    1. Lisa Hall-Wilson says:
      January 12, 2025 at 4:35 pm

      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.

      Reply
      1. Luke Baldwin says:
        October 5, 2025 at 3:46 am

        I was banned this spring from both FB and X.

        Facebook told me I was banned due to “account integrity” I have only ever had one FB account since 2008 or 9.

        X never gave me a reason for their ban.

        Reply
        1. Lisa Hall-Wilson says:
          November 7, 2025 at 3:15 pm

          That’s frustrating.

          Reply
  8. Linda says:
    January 9, 2025 at 11:24 am

    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!

    Reply
    1. Lisa Hall-Wilson says:
      January 10, 2025 at 3:09 pm

      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!

      Reply
  9. Alice Fleury says:
    January 10, 2025 at 8:45 pm

    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.

    Reply
    1. Lisa Hall-Wilson says:
      January 10, 2025 at 11:23 pm

      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/

      Reply
  10. Barbara A Martinez says:
    January 12, 2025 at 4:27 pm

    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.

    Reply
    1. Lisa Hall-Wilson says:
      January 12, 2025 at 4:32 pm

      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.

      Reply
  11. Gary moses says:
    January 15, 2025 at 12:34 am

    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.

    Reply
    1. Lisa Hall-Wilson says:
      January 16, 2025 at 9:43 pm

      Facebook has had notoriously terrible customer service from pretty much day one.

      Reply
  12. Lorna says:
    January 16, 2025 at 3:02 pm

    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.
    Lorna recently posted…Reading Round-Up: November/December 2024

    Reply
    1. Lisa Hall-Wilson says:
      January 16, 2025 at 9:42 pm

      I use Facebook to create community for my business, so I’m really missing it.

      Reply
  13. Melissa McClone says:
    January 21, 2025 at 12:32 pm

    I think I’m already on your list. Is there a way to check?

    Reply
    1. Lisa Hall-Wilson says:
      February 12, 2025 at 5:16 pm

      I’ve sent this post out via email. If you received it, you’re on the list.

      Reply
  14. Mary says:
    January 24, 2025 at 4:18 pm

    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.

    Reply
    1. Lisa Hall-Wilson says:
      February 12, 2025 at 5:14 pm

      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.

      Reply
  15. Daniella Alexandersson says:
    January 24, 2025 at 5:32 pm

    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.

    Reply
    1. Lisa Hall-Wilson says:
      February 12, 2025 at 5:10 pm

      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!

      Reply
  16. Tom Bromley says:
    January 27, 2025 at 6:24 am

    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..

    Reply
  17. Mike Blankenship says:
    February 8, 2025 at 8:35 pm

    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.

    Reply
    1. Lisa Hall-Wilson says:
      February 12, 2025 at 5:06 pm

      I was using it for business. But yes, it’s been a good break to reconsider priorities and time use.

      Reply
  18. S. Ben says:
    February 16, 2025 at 12:54 pm

    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.

    Reply
  19. Neil says:
    March 4, 2025 at 12:34 pm

    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.

    Reply
    1. Lisa Hall-Wilson says:
      March 28, 2025 at 12:43 pm

      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.

      Reply
  20. Miffie Seideman says:
    March 8, 2025 at 4:42 pm

    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!

    Reply
    1. Lisa Hall-Wilson says:
      March 28, 2025 at 12:42 pm

      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.

      Reply
  21. Joe Stanton says:
    March 22, 2025 at 8:50 pm

    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.

    Reply
    1. Lisa Hall-Wilson says:
      March 28, 2025 at 12:41 pm

      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.

      Reply
  22. Lucie Winborne says:
    March 25, 2025 at 11:07 pm

    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.

    Reply
    1. Lisa Hall-Wilson says:
      March 28, 2025 at 12:39 pm

      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.

      Reply
  23. Leigh Dappa says:
    April 6, 2025 at 6:39 am

    Hi, Lisa, sorry to hear you’ve lost all your photos and memories but this has happened to me.

    On 25th March 2025, I found out a friend I had known since 2012 had died. Her FB had become a “Remembering” Page.
    Unfortunately, I never saw the change ever on my Feed as it full of ‘Pages I might like’ or ‘People I might Know’.

    I enquired around being very respectful asking how/when did she die? (It was in May 2024)

    While in a conversation with someone else, I was then locked out my Account.
    Appealing was pointless.
    The only reason I can think of is because I used the word “die” which wasn’t used in a threatening manner.

    Fortunately, I do have my photos and videos backed up on my phone and a portable hard drive but certain Posts I’ve saved are gone and, like you, there are only a few international friends I can only contact on Facebook.

    I created a secondary account to let them and a few others know what was happening but that account was also banned.

    It’s obvious Meta has implanted some tracking on my Flip5.

    I’ve moved to X but it’s just not the same.

    The silver lining is that me and an old (ex girl) friend have got back into contact via WhatsApp which I fear will be next as it’s also owned by Meta.

    Reply
  24. Bhai Gian Prit says:
    April 9, 2025 at 8:22 am

    I was fb banned too for sharing that same label as a curiosity with even no comment as you ve done, so fb has become really ugly and unfair on censoring.

    Reply
    1. Lisa Hall-Wilson says:
      May 28, 2025 at 12:15 pm

      The same photo and no comment? Wow. This is all feels super arbitrary at times.

      Reply
  25. Meghan J McKee says:
    April 29, 2025 at 6:46 pm

    This exact thing just happened to me but they haven’t caught up to my Insta account yet. That’s next, I’m counting the days… This all started when I deleted my Facebook account when Facebook suddenly had me following profiles I had never followed before. It had me following the POTUS, First Lady, their children, the VP… I got really angry and deleted my account. When I got over myself and missed keeping in touch with my faraway family, I tried to start a new account with the same name and email. No go. Then I tried a new email on a different device. I had to do the video to ensure I wasn’t a hacker but still, no go. I got the same canned answer you got above – that my content violated community standards. Not once had I been suspended or even warned. I had a squeaky clean account. No porn, nudity, nothing. Maybe it was that I am staunchly Democrat and posted memes to that effect but nothing that would get a girl banned. I am stumped and bummed out because FB was how I connected to family far away.

    Reply
    1. Lisa Hall-Wilson says:
      May 28, 2025 at 12:17 pm

      I don’t know why that would happen. Maybe someone reported you? I’ve had so many comments from Democrats saying FB is all about appeasing Trump. I’ve had Republicans commenting that Zuck is imposing Democrat views… idk (I don’t let a lot of those comments through, they don’t seem helpful to the conversation). As a Canadian though, I don’t have a horse in that race so I don’t think my ban was political in any way. Though I was outspoken during Covid, this ban happened well after that (and I didn’t receive any warnings).

      Reply
  26. Dave S says:
    May 30, 2025 at 8:20 pm

    I was banned 3 days ago and I had to make an appeal.

    The same thing happened to me back in January and I made an appeal and had to submit my photos and they reinstated me.

    I wish to get off Facebook totally but so many of my acquaintances and friends are on Facebook along with the groups that I use for sharing information.

    Reply
  27. Mike Parks says:
    June 4, 2025 at 9:16 am

    Yep, I just got banned on Facebook and Instagram last night. I was scrolling through and poof a message pops up your account has been banned because of community standards. What did I do wrong by scrolling? Who knows? I posted a couple of comments a few weeks ago tagging Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg about the pornographic enhancement ads that have been blowing up on everyone’s fyp. Maybe they got triggered by calling that out?

    Reply
  28. Christina Schultz says:
    June 4, 2025 at 11:00 am

    I got booted for making the joke, which I’ve made before on FB, “I would like one cocaine, please.” It was just a comment on a post ABOUT SNORTING EVERYTHING. But I’m the one that got permanently banned.

    Reply
  29. NRMT says:
    June 28, 2025 at 9:18 pm

    My facebook account is also banned last June 27, 2025 and facebook accuse me of something that i didn’t do. Same thing happened to my other account. I use facebook to contact customers because majority of people here in the Philippines only use facebook to communicate and my employer requires me to send reports on facebook messenger. I might lose my job because of these

    Reply
  30. frances says:
    June 30, 2025 at 11:00 am

    I got banned out of the blue. The robot declined my appeal. All my friends are on facebook – that is how I talk to them. I have no idea why.

    Reply
  31. Laurence Lowne says:
    July 8, 2025 at 2:08 am

    Feel for you big time, Lisa.

    I had issues in my groups last week (Thursday 3/7/25), thought nothing of it, and trust two factor login to protect me from anything malicious.

    Did a search and found two fake profiles, and reported both, and a day later was told both profiles were fine.

    Requested a review (one had stolen IP from my profile), and a day later I was suspended without an ability to appeal.

    Logged in with secondary account – FB security had suggested creating this since my groups were so large (over 750,000 reach), and that was suspended within ten minutes of logging in. Hmmmmmmm.

    I have zero ability to appeal either profile, since logging in sends me on a total loop and no access to inbox.

    I have email addresses for Dublin, but having been off FB for a few days, I am considering not bothering.
    Sleeping better, but like you Lisa, Facebook messenger is the one of I am missing.

    Utilised it for social occasions via mobile, and I am not convinced everyone takes a note of your mobile phone number!

    BTW I think Insta is where the issue actually lies, rather than FB.
    I sponsor through my business a couple of sports people/clubs – both have had their insta accounts hacked.
    Now suspect this is where the issue lies.

    Reply
  32. Wallace Nye says:
    July 9, 2025 at 12:21 pm

    I got banned May 11th. Then I clicked on review email before I did an appeal. I was just kinda panicked and wanted to review what they were talking about. Next email was permanent ban. I know I did not do what they said !!! I hardly posted anything and never shared or contacted anyone that was not my friends. No one on my friends (family too) said I posted anything wrong !! This Oversight Board, I just don’t know if I have the energy to jump thru the hoops that FB has set up. Can’t talk to a human being. So frustrating, I can’t believe in American, a company, making a ton a money can treat people this way !!! Thank you for your info ! Very much appreciated and want to hear more about where you’re going next and anymore info on what I think is AI taking over, so FB can make more money and don’t have to pay andone in customer service. How is it legal. Thanks Wally.

    Reply
  33. Anonymous says:
    July 12, 2025 at 9:02 pm

    Just been banned this morning . Also banned me from my Instagram stupidly should not have connected both together. Robot declined my appeal. All my friends are on my main account. But I have several backups. Use a different email account and a different name.

    Reply
  34. Holly says:
    July 16, 2025 at 7:14 pm

    Facebook permanently banned me too cause I was post political content that was factual about 911 and they banned me!!!!! I wish Facebook couldn’t do permanent bans! Only like for a year! I hate Facebook but everyone uses it so super inconvenient being banned for stupid shit. Need another platform that isn’t as much of an asshole as Facebook but is the same thing.

    Reply
  35. kostia7alania says:
    July 25, 2025 at 11:05 am

    The dictatorial Instagram was just blocked for expressing an opinion.
    Minus 8 years of life.
    And why did I waste so many days of my life? So that some British company could take and delete all the stories that I invested so many days of my life into.
    Thousands of stories and correspondence were destroyed.
    But who helped this?
    Of course, our compatriots, men and women, who, just like in the USSR in the 20th century, brought millions of denunciations.
    But maybe we’ll make a revolution and make the world Great Again and the World will be Reasonable again.
    And they’ll restore my account, but time can’t be returned.
    In the meantime, let’s go to Telegram.

    Reply
  36. Alan says:
    August 7, 2025 at 4:09 am

    Here is something I am confused about, can you or anybody else help me with this? Okay, so I got permanently banned from Facebook just for adding family members to my friends and for joining a few groups. All these groups were not even offensive, they were Christian groups and nature photography groups. Also, considering I was adding family members, surely Facebook would have noticed that these were people I actually know, right? Well, apparently me joining groups or adding family members is considered “spam” and that I violated the guidelines in regards to “authenticity and integrity” but some crazy woman I know who has like 1938326626363636 accounts where she pretends to be fictional characters has not been banned once and even if you try to report her, Facebook will notify you saying that no guidelines were broken. Can any of make any sense of this? I am so confused!

    Reply
    1. Lisa Hall-Wilson says:
      August 21, 2025 at 2:12 pm

      Ya – Facebook is twitchy about any behaviour they deem as “spammy” so joining a lot of groups in a short period of time, posting the same thing over and over to several groups in a short period of time, adding a whole bunch of people instead of inviting them, inviting too many people in a short space of time. It’s like playing roulette. Eventually, that lady will get caught out but probably won’t lose all her profiles. Their complaints department is just a computer, so you won’t get anywhere.

      Reply
  37. Mandy says:
    August 10, 2025 at 8:45 am

    Hi I was taken down too same reason gun drugs and whatever. I had no way of appealing, lost my photo page as in photography, miss out on heaps of competitions now, lost instagram photo page and most of my facebook friends. Ive been permanently deleted for around 4 to 5 weeks now yet Im starting to show up on facebook again, everything vanished all my photos but last night a friend did a search and she can see some of my photos on groups I ran and comps I entered. Now I can view market place and public groups but I still dont exist. Are you able to google facebook market place and have it come up? Ive tried asking on reddit but it takes months to get enough scores to be able to post

    Reply
    1. Lisa Hall-Wilson says:
      August 21, 2025 at 2:10 pm

      No. It’s been eight months and I’m still completely erased.

      Reply
  38. Alicia Butcher Ehrhardt says:
    August 27, 2025 at 2:51 pm

    Hi. I’m new. This may be my D E W – distant early warning – line.

    I’ve commented freely (and politely) on FB, reposting stuff not favorable to the current administration, and it just occurred to my little brain that I may not be doing myself any favors and could suddenly be banned!

    Talk about SUPPRESSING free speech! If they can instantly and permanently disconnect you from your friends and family, they have the power of terror over you.

    It’s not that easy to reconnect with many of the people I know only online. They can find me – I have two blogs on WordPress and the main one has my full name – but I can’t find them unless I’ve saved some email conversation we’ve had.

    At 75 and chronically ill, replacing my lifelines will be nigh impossible.

    I guess I should say Thanks for the reminder! and go do another download of my posts. Ditto for WordPress – which put me through some kind of dance about access to my own WordPress accounts. I ended up with ten recovery codes PRINTED and labeled, but I still don’t think I could reconnect my own universe. And it used energy I don’t have.
    Alicia Butcher Ehrhardt recently posted…Members of the Reading Jury: What say ye?

    Reply
    1. Lisa Hall-Wilson says:
      September 4, 2025 at 7:32 pm

      I believe you’d have to do more than repost stuff criticizing the gov’t (at this point) but if you mention drugs, or guns, or vaccines or any other number of flagged words, you could be. It’s their sandbox and it’s easy to forget that. We don’t own any space there.

      Reply
  39. Ryan says:
    September 3, 2025 at 1:53 pm

    I was banned tooby ai detection, didn’t do anything to deserve it. It was automatic ban.

    Reply
    1. Lisa Hall-Wilson says:
      September 4, 2025 at 7:30 pm

      That sucks. Sorry that happened to you. I have no advice or tip on how to talk to a real human there. 🙁

      Reply
  40. Erik Strack says:
    November 1, 2025 at 3:10 pm

    It’s time for FB to just come to an end. We would all be better off.

    Reply
    1. Lisa Hall-Wilson says:
      November 7, 2025 at 3:20 pm

      I don’t think it’s all evil, and life isn’t fair – but for sure. We’re all better off limiting our time and attention on a screen and prioritize engaging with the people around us.

      Reply
  41. Charles Cagle says:
    November 7, 2025 at 10:39 am

    Wow such a long wall of complaining text. Are you sure this is why you are banned, you do realize you said cocaine in your article a ton of times but cocaine is not listed on the label. Morphia Sulphate is Morphine/heroin. There was cough syrup with cocaine back then, but the main ingredient was heroin/morphine. There were Elixers that tended to have more cocaine.

    Reply
    1. Lisa Hall-Wilson says:
      November 7, 2025 at 3:28 pm

      Did you read the post? I used the word cocaine once. I’m not arguing that I didn’t. On the surface, my use of that word in a comment would have appeared as a positive endorsement if sarcasm isn’t accounted for which does violate Facebook’s TOS. I think a warning or a short ban would have been more appropriate for an account with zero violations in 17 years, but that’s me. It was a joke and you seem to be the first person (not including the AI) not to recognize that. AI is a tool, and it shouldn’t replace human oversight. The point of the post, which seems to have escaped you, was that we don’t own anything on social media and can be banned without notice or appeal – plan accordingly.

      Reply

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