The Anomalies Network : John Titor - I am from 2036
http://www.facebook.com/STOKESAPPS
Monday, September 27, 2010
Monday, September 20, 2010
OUR FACEBOOK STATUS
our pages are still up. but i havent heard back from facebook/. if i dont ill make a new page very soon. NOTHING IS GOING TO GET IN THE WAY OF MY DREAMS>
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Sunday, September 5, 2010
Thanks Facebook for stripping me of your service
Thanks Facebook for stripping me of your service
stored in: Social MediaWelcome to my blog! If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my feed. Also, check me out on twitter! Thanks for visiting!
The most random thing happened to me last night and I am not sure how it happened. I went to login to my Facebook account last night and next thing I know I get the following message:
“Your account has been disabled by an administrator. If you have any questions or concerns, you can visit our FAQ page here.”
The thing that really gets me is not one piece of communication from Facebook to the user, in this case, me other than at the login screen. There was not one email sent from Facebook possibly stating: “Your account was disabled for the following reason…”
Furthermore, typically when someone violates a terms of services or anything of that nature, there should be a communication sent out to the individual. When you strip someone of any type of product, service, account, etc. there needs to be a valid reason for it and also what they can do to re-initiate their account. Going WAY back into the past with AOL, they use to do this if your account was reported, etc. I remember a specific occurrence where i called someone a name as a joke, in a chat room and I was reported by someone else (yes, I am a geek that lives online practically and I did at some point hang out in chat rooms with friends, insert one of many jokes). AOL still sent an email to us, saying the account was disabled for the following XX number of reasons, the specific comment made, and furthermore, provided steps to getting our account back.
Moving back to Facebook, you can not strip someone of their means of communication and not provide reasoning for doing so. Disabling a users account without any explanation is like stripping a family of telephone and snail mail communication in the 1970′s, you just don’t do that!
So, I went on my way and tried to do a little digging to see if I could find a way to contact customer support or something along those lines. As you can see in the screenshot above there is a fancy little link to the FAQ page, “here”. (Side mistake by Facebook…right…because “here” describes what this beautiful little page is? Why not just link “disabled account FAQ page” to be a little more semantic…sigh)
What do we have here, on this fancy little FAQ page which provides absolutely no contact information? Ooops, I leaked it a bit to early…yes…you heard me right…the FAQ page does not provide ANY contact information to the user attempting to get in touch to find out why their account was disabled. Facebook, seriously? Are. You. Kidding. Me?!
Here is the fully open disabled user FAQ page, with…(yes I’m going to say it again)…NO CONTACT INFORMATION:
Let’s recap for a moment here on where Facebook had a FAIL of EPIC proportions:
•First and foremost, disabled a users account without any absolute reason
•Provided the user with no explanation, let alone a detailed explanation of the problem
•Did not provide any steps to re-enable or bring their account back online
•Worst of all, did not provide any contact information to the user for them to contact facebook.
A lot of the actions above can be easily handled by setting up triggers in your database or code. The disabling action should trigger an email, of which, should contain the reasons for disabling the user. The reasons can be linked to the users profile, provide that string of text in the email. Furthermore the contact details should be provided in the email template and/or a list of things the user can do in the meantime. Rather than getting frustrated and writing a blog post, like me.
Now, I have actually emailed facebook, the disabled email address is disabled@facebook.com. I found that address thanks to Steve Ganz doing a search for me. (Which I’ll admit, I should have thought of doing, but was so confused I didn’t) The url to that page is http://www.facebook.com/help.php?hq=account+disabled. We will see how this comedic drama of my account being disabled turns out. Hopefully Facebook can clean up their customer support and disabled account policies in the meantime as well.
Updates:
7/13 @ 4:05pm: It is a Sunday and typically not a “business day”…but 12 hours since my account was disabled and still no contact from facebook support or a reply to the disabled email address.
7/13 @ 4:30pm: Thanks to a tip from @carlayoung on twitter, I have fwd’ed my email to their appeals@facebook.com email address for yet another attempt at opening communication lines up.
7/14 @ 8:05am: It has been a full day since my first emails have been sent off to Facebook’s disabled support and I still have not received an email. My account is still disabled.
7/15 @ 4:55 pm: Facebook finally re-actived my account and said that I need to browse Facebook less…interestingly enough, they state there are rate limits, but refuse to state what those rate limits are.
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+1 Vote up Vote down Ellen Petry Leanse · 113 weeks ago
I'm commenting on this in hopes that someone from Facebook will read this, and what's above.
To start: I am a HUGE Facebook fan. I often speak at a keynote level on social media, and feature Facebook as my exemplar. I coach VP and C-level execs, often from well-known enterprises, on the business productivity of social networks (again, with Facebook prominently featured), and I host webinars on using social networks (again, Facebook) to build business results.
And I'm a pretty low-key person, I think; not the type to put hate mail, profanities, spam or other offensive content anywhere, really, and certainly not anywhere in my online presence. That would violate my "personal TOS" even more than it might those of any online service I used.
So I was astonished to receive a warning message last week, similar to that above, saying that I had violated Facebook's TOS by putting offensive, hateful, profane etc. content on someone's wall.
To be clear: I didn't.
But my only path to get rid of the message was to "acknowledge" that I had rec'd it, which to me felt like admitting or agreeing to having made an offense.
I would never acknowledge something that I hadn't done. I left the warning message as it was and did not acknowledge.
I did write to Facebook customer support about this, and (although I never rec'd any sort of response) after a few days the warning message just went away.
So many things were wrong with the experience that Facebook delivered when they sent me this message. It was clear, from the workflow and the wording, that they were expecting the worst from their users rather than the best. That is really a bad way for a company to view their users.
Also, they gave me no specific information...and trust me, if something had triggered this punitive message, they had the data; it would have only been fair for them to share that data with me. I had absolutely no idea what post they might of been referring to...where and when I had ostensibly put the inappropriate content, what the content had been, what I should do to set it right.
Can you envision being stopped by some sort of law enforcement official and being told that you had done something wrong, and that you were at risk of being cited for it, so don't do it again—but not being told what you had done wrong? Or, if you're a parent, telling one of your kids to "Stop it!" but not telling them what they should stop? I was truly befuddled by Facebook's message and followed the same path described above (read the info that FB had sent me to) and again...nothing. No relevant content, no specifics, no path to set it right.
Facebook is a world-class service with a ton of vision and very high-quality performance on so many levels. However, the "resolution" part of their customer experience is a violation of their brand promise and a true breakdown in the sophistication of the service. It feels reflexive, not thought out, punitive, caustic and nasty.
If someone from Facebook is reading this, first: thanks, and second: get some of those smart, talented people on your team to flow-chart what might trigger a warning message, what the various causes or possibilities for that message might be, and then create the messaging, specific content, and resolution path that would allow a user to resolve it. And, as you do so, assume the best from your users rather than the worst. I assure you, if you expect that of them, you will be much more likely to resolve issues positivity rather than offend your users and weaken the great brand that you have.
thanks,
Ellen Reply
0 replies · active less than 1 minute ago 0 Vote up Vote down Tony Adam · 113 weeks ago
@Ellen Thanks for the great comment and feedback and I totally agree with your points as well! It's amazing they haven't developed a system for this yet. There has been so much bad PR about it and here lies yet another reputation management issue. Reply
0 replies · active less than 1 minute ago 0 Vote up Vote down Mike Cunningham · 113 weeks ago
You know these Services are set up to make it hard to near impossible to regain your account and information.
Remember he days when it was impossible to quit AOL?
I'm having a similar but not quite alike problem with MySpace. I admit I blew the Email address for logon by putting 2 @'s in it. I admit I can't type. I've written to the help people, sent the "salute" mug shot picture required, only to get back the same form letter from a robot telling me to do what I just did.
Oh yeah, thanks for the reminder, Nice quiet Sunday, good time to devote my energy to tracking down MYSpace leaders. I guess I'll start with Wikipedia as Google hasn't helped.
Get Your Name On!
Mike
http://twitter.com/mike1mb Reply
0 replies · active less than 1 minute ago 0 Vote up Vote down C.J. · 113 weeks ago
I had the same a few days ago - no warning, and I had to find the email address to ask about it from google.
Not only was my profile disabled, but a facebook ad campaign I was runnig disappeared, as did the 'Page' I use to promote a business - all done well within their ToS.
When I got an answer as to why my account had been disabled, it was because I had changed my profile name a few months ago. You have to get approval to change your name, so they had already 'okayed' it - then several months later, close down my profile and my ads for something they'd already approved - with no warning, and no telling me how to communicate with them about it. Sheer stupidity.
They did restore everything after a couple of days, and I'm still at a complete loss to understand what on earth they thought they were playing at. Reply
0 replies · active less than 1 minute ago 0 Vote up Vote down Clickfire · 113 weeks ago
I think it's a mistake to ban users like this from a service and not give them any way of appeal. Reply
0 replies · active less than 1 minute ago +1 Vote up Vote down Roney · 113 weeks ago
It's an unfortunate welcome to the club:(
Each attempt to learn more about the disabling of your account reduces the probability of getting the account reinstated I have discovered.
The only potential upside is that they will not share any information with third parties but their bureaucratic tendencies melts this hope away as well.
Hopefully the new board member will convince FB to have an Amnesty Day to reinstate accounts since the entire disabling approach is rather web2.0-Nazi like:( Reply
0 replies · active less than 1 minute ago +1 Vote up Vote down holly · 112 weeks ago
It seems strange that just a few months ago Facebook was facing issues because users could not fully delete their accounts and now they are doing it for them...with no warning. All very odd. Reply
0 replies · active less than 1 minute ago Social Media Is Always Changing… But Do You Change With It?
[...] is not a whole lot to talk about in regards to social communities. Outside of Facebook deciding to ban people at random, social communities are pretty much business as [...]
Blog Post - Facebook Deleting Accounts? - eCommerce Forums - eBiz Insider Magazine
[...] TOS. This is an interesting read and offers some helpful tips if you find you've been suspended. Thanks Facebook for stripping me of your service __________________ Jean Lloyd Solid Cactus - Sr. Search Engine Marketing [...]
0 Vote up Vote down terry chay · 112 weeks ago
Is it ironic that I found out about this post because Tony’s notes-blog on Facebook is still active and I saw it on my Facebook feed? Reply
0 replies · active less than 1 minute ago 0 Vote up Vote down Tony Adam · 112 weeks ago
@terrychay - I had remove and/or update all the apps that were on my facebook profile...my account was re-activated on 7/15. Reply
0 replies · active less than 1 minute ago +1 Vote up Vote down paisley · 109 weeks ago
Tony,
Unfortunately with Facebook and Myspace, it's a free service.. one of the risks with using this is there is not real "agreement" from facebook's end to provide you service.
This is where LinkedIn's account upgrade has a little teeth, at least you do have some expectation of service because you have "purchased" something.
I understand your ire completely, i used to have like 50k friends on myspace which were people that wanted my information on dance music events worldwide. it was about a $5k a month side business, however once that profile was removed, so was my reach.
it does however resemble SEO with Google or Yahoo! (not sure how much today, tho now that we have employees from both focused on search.. unlike the people who accept yahoo! express submit applications)
however, trying to get a listing in yahoo! directory once you have changed a URL is near impossible.. after billing the client for 42 man hours in trying to geta URL changed, we finally had to give up and submit a duplicate URL.
you are lucky you got your profile back.. myspace never replied, nor restored my profile, of course i never renewed my 55k monthly ad spend for 4 different clients either. Reply
0 replies · active less than 1 minute ago -1 Vote up Vote down Lalah · 95 weeks ago
Facebook disabled my account for no reason. No email or warning. I signed up to run an ad for a non-profit group and it was approved. Within an hour my account was disabled? The group is still up and going but it say, has no administrators. So, Facebook is charging me for an ad, when I can't even log in with my own account? Sounds like a rip off to me. I contacted the State Attorney General's office and filed a complaint. Because when any money exchanges, it's a transaction. And they don't have any way for you to contact them other through emails, which they don't respond to. I'm going to small claims court if it doesn't get taken care of. You can't charge someone for a service and then not give them access to that service. It's ridiculous. I read that some students in Canda are suing Facebook as well over Privacy issues. Too bad Americans don't take that attitude, we'd probably get more satisfaction, instead of complaining about it. I say stop the whining and get some action done. File a complaint with the State Attorney General. When there are enough complaints, Facebook will change their operations and accessibility. Reply
0 replies · active less than 1 minute ago 0 Vote up Vote down jessica · 85 weeks ago
my account was disabled yesterday afternoon because i "sent too many messages" i have sent emails to about 4 different facebook emails i've seen and have recieved nothing in return.
what are the chances of them actually reactivating my account? Reply
0 replies · active less than 1 minute ago 0 Vote up Vote down Malhaar · 83 weeks ago
Facebook fails when it comes to service, I got disabled once for three weeks, it took that long for my message to get through.. and when I got my account back I got disabled immediately after logging in, so I email again and 5 days later get my account back, and after 24 hours im disabled again! They really need to sort out their methods of disabling accounts its mind blowingly stupid the way they do it right now! Reply
0 replies · active less than 1 minute ago +2 Vote up Vote down janis · 82 weeks ago
Hi.. yes the very same has happened to me and its just weird cos i barely use my account and i dont send many msgs or take up much space. So strange. I just want my account back you know. There are ppl on there who are gonna start wondering what the hell happened to me. Anyway. If anyone can help.... janis.leroux@gmail.com Reply
0 replies · active less than 1 minute ago +1 Vote up Vote down Kat · 75 weeks ago
I have been trying to get a response from Facebook since May 31st as to why they disabled my account. I have sent numerous e-mails to them to no response. I have e-mailed warning@facebook.com, info+06gfreez@facebookmail.com, appeals@facebook.com, diabled@facebook.com, and info@facebook.com and I have not received one darn response. I mean I am also with other sites and they are never this bad. Pleading means nothing to them. I don't know what else to do. Reply
0 replies · active less than 1 minute ago 0 Vote up Vote down Lucas · 73 weeks ago
I was on this morning without a problem. Then at lunch time today could not get back in. Saying they disable my account. I was like excuse me?
what did I do, I am just a simple user with friends and family on my list of contacts. Not running no groups or being a admin or whatever. Yes i am in groups, no crime with that since they encourage to have so many different type of groups.
So I email them and suprise I got an email back within the hour. But nothing since over 2 hours now.
Hi,
The Facebook Team has received your inquiry. We should get back to you soon. In the meantime, we encourage you to review our Terms of Use (http://www.facebook.com/terms.php) for more information.
Thanks for contacting Facebook,
The Facebook Team
They should really look toward the bad things going on their site before disabling people accounts without no reason or warning.
Like you know how many porn is on that site or above other stupid things they should really look into before looking at people accounts to see how many friends they have or how much you are browsing on facebook. I mean seriously.....holy moly! Reply
0 replies · active less than 1 minute ago 0 Vote up Vote down HARVEY ANDERSON · 71 weeks ago
Greedings to all FaceBook users my FaceBook account was “DISABLE” 05-03-09 for to many friends request. but when you read the terms of Agreedment it dose not say how many friend request you can add like for example you can only add 50/100/75 something like that but when you read the Agreedment it dose not say anything about that. but at the end of the day i realy like FaceBook thank you.HARVEY Reply
0 replies · active less than 1 minute ago 0 Vote up Vote down Daniel James · 70 weeks ago
@Lucas,
Who did you email to get your reply back, because i am in the same situation as you and i am having some confusion over who to contact over at facebook email-wise.
thanks Reply
0 replies · active less than 1 minute ago 0 Vote up Vote down Mark A. Dix · 65 weeks ago
May I ask everyone "How should Facebook change its account disabling policy?" at least to me is quite simple. Before I present my answer, I want to ask Facebook if there is anyone at Facebook that knows how to reason and treat people in a humane manner? The reason I ask this question is because Facebook on the surface appears to be user friendly and concerned about its members. However, upon closer examination Facebook does not have a due process and does not care at all about its members rights and feelings. Here are a few examples. Facebook limits the number of friends you can have and limits the number of friends you can make in a given period of time, limits the number of groups you can belong to, limits the number of messages you can send in a given period of time, limits the number of “polks” you can make and no doubt other limits I am not mentioning. All limits are ruthlessly enforced by giving you warnings you are breaching Facebook's limits without telling you what the specific limit number is and then disabling a member, or abruptly disabling a member without a warning and without saying what limit rate was breached and of course without a specific number that is deemed to be to "fast." Most members are permanently disabled and are told that Facebooks decision is final and there is no recourse. To me this is analogous to giving speeding tickets without having a speed limit posted. In Facebook warnings and in their disabling message they call a "guilty" member a scammer or spammer and further say you "may be" infringing upon the rights other members by harassment.
Now to answer the question " "How should Facebook change its account disabling policy?" To me all Facebook or should I say at this time "Facelessbook" has to do if, dare, I use the terms thinks or feels, it needs limits to guard against real threats to security is to program in limit governors that will stop the breach of policy before it is breached. Limit governors will enforce the Facebook policy of limits and will as well be a security measure to guard against real scammers and spammers. A limit governor is the same thing as a speed governor on a vehicle. As an old farm boy from Iowa I fail to see the difficulty in having a limit governor policy and implementing it with a computer program. With limit governors in place members will not be disabled because they will not be allowed to breach polices and real scammers and spammers will not be able to operate so why be a member?
If Facebook is treating its international members with ruthless complete disregard for their rights and feelings like it treats it domestic members with ruthless complete disregard for their rights and feelings I believe Facebook is not only giving itself a black eye it is also giving the United States of America a BIG black eye in the eyes of the rest of the world. I ask Facebook to please wake up and see the light. If you are so paranoid about your members governing themselves by self enforcement of your unknown limits and rates than at the very least give members an exact number that is considered a breach of your limits and rates and or place your own limit governors on whatever you want to governor and stop disabling members who are actually your friends as well as friends of other members. I believe if Facebook will place its own limit governors to enforce its policies or even better do away with limits and allow freedom to reign you will be creating good will for yourself and most importantly from your members and disabled former members.
One final note. In all fairness (?) to Facebook, Facebook SAYS it has an appeals process, customer support and a disabled contact to assist disabled members to sort through what has happened and evidently to somehow offer hope of membership reinstatement. However, because I know from first hand experience, the contact services are in fact a cruel automated ruse that does not reply at all or replies with an automated reply and nothing is done. There may be a very minuscule minority of disabled members who have been reinstated but a large VAST majority of disabled members are ignored and do not receive a due process and are never again allowed to be a member of Facebook. I want to ask everyone if Facebooks current polices and practices are what the United States of America is founded upon? Thank you for your time and interest in my answer to “"How should Facebook change its account disabling policy?" Sincerely yours, Mark A. Dix, Brooklyn, Iowa, USA Reply
0 replies · active less than 1 minute ago 0 Vote up Vote down Debra · 62 weeks ago
Ellen thanks for the above message to us. I have been
on Facebook every day for the last several months. I
created an account back in April. I have worked hard to
get up a list of contacts there. I have gotten quite far in
Farmtown and Yoville.
All of a sudden last evening when I went to log in I couldn't
log in. I finally, after much Googling, found the link above
and wrote the Customer Service people. I received
nothing from them before this happened that my account
had been disabled. In fact, my whole profile has disappeared
and I have disappeared off my friends pages as well.
I am cerainly not going to start all over with Farmtown and
Yoville. I've come too far. Furthermore when I did try to
log in I was sent to a blank page that said Welcome to
Facebook. A new account page? Whatever for?
By the time Facebook Team responded to me, which
was late this morning, they only told me I logged in with
the wrong email address and not to create a new account
or I would make things more confusing.
Where is my profile?!
Debra Reply
0 replies · active less than 1 minute ago 0 Vote up Vote down Carole Hunter · 60 weeks ago
I was running along on Facebook since Feb - and leaving comments everytime one of my friends posted a thought. Sometimes those thoughts led to "comment conversations" and that is called chatting on the wall which ie verboten. I never got a warning, never got an email - I just got banned for 4 days. After being allowed back I noticed my posts would stay gray for a long time before hitting the comment box. I got nervous so I deactivated my old account and spent 8 hours building a new one and I also emailed many peeps asking them to req my friendship so not to overuse that and get a warning.
Everything was fine until yesterday. I got a warning in my email - did not see it till too late since my email screen and FB are two different screens. A warning came up on my wall after I commented and then a box telling me I hd violated one of the following terms yadda yadda yadda.
You know what - I don't care - I reached a point where it bores me and I have all the email addresses of peeps I want to contact.
I think that they are running it like a Communist organization because complaints are valid as I read them here. Terms and conditions are too vague. I comment a lot what is the limit??? Has anyone personally reported me? No. If they did then I should get a warning and guess what the warning should say who reported me so I can block them or unfriend them. Wouldn't that be a fairer way to do things?
What do you expect from kids who we have given power to by joining?
Me I am back to email, texting and imagine this - phone calls.
I am an adult I don't need to call them names Reply
0 replies · active less than 1 minute ago 0 Vote up Vote down Robin · 60 weeks ago
Today, July 20th. I was sent a warning that my account could be disabled for violation of terms of service. With in 15 minutes, my account was disabled. Of course they do NOT tell you why or what you did. I wrote to the only address I could find and told them I am a 57 year old woman, not some child playing around on the Internet.
I got the same form letter back that all of you got. I still have not heard anything and it's upset me terribly. Anyone can look at my profile and they will not see curse words, they will not see porn.
What is wrong with them? Is this just a program that spits out names at random and they decide to ban them, disable them, or terminate them?? Big Brother is watching, but they don't know what they are looking at.
My family has told me my whole profile is gone and all of my comments on other's pages. I don't know the answer, but I do know this is wrong to do this to innocent people.
What can we do? Reply
0 replies · active less than 1 minute ago 0 Vote up Vote down Barbara · 60 weeks ago
I now know of several people, who have been banned or whose accounts have been closed, disabled and/or deleted on FaceBook......they have no idea why, the REAL reason, and as so many comments above, any 'notices' were vague and/or unfounded.
stored in: Social MediaWelcome to my blog! If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my feed. Also, check me out on twitter! Thanks for visiting!
The most random thing happened to me last night and I am not sure how it happened. I went to login to my Facebook account last night and next thing I know I get the following message:
“Your account has been disabled by an administrator. If you have any questions or concerns, you can visit our FAQ page here.”
The thing that really gets me is not one piece of communication from Facebook to the user, in this case, me other than at the login screen. There was not one email sent from Facebook possibly stating: “Your account was disabled for the following reason…”
Furthermore, typically when someone violates a terms of services or anything of that nature, there should be a communication sent out to the individual. When you strip someone of any type of product, service, account, etc. there needs to be a valid reason for it and also what they can do to re-initiate their account. Going WAY back into the past with AOL, they use to do this if your account was reported, etc. I remember a specific occurrence where i called someone a name as a joke, in a chat room and I was reported by someone else (yes, I am a geek that lives online practically and I did at some point hang out in chat rooms with friends, insert one of many jokes
Moving back to Facebook, you can not strip someone of their means of communication and not provide reasoning for doing so. Disabling a users account without any explanation is like stripping a family of telephone and snail mail communication in the 1970′s, you just don’t do that!
So, I went on my way and tried to do a little digging to see if I could find a way to contact customer support or something along those lines. As you can see in the screenshot above there is a fancy little link to the FAQ page, “here”. (Side mistake by Facebook…right…because “here” describes what this beautiful little page is? Why not just link “disabled account FAQ page” to be a little more semantic…sigh)
What do we have here, on this fancy little FAQ page which provides absolutely no contact information? Ooops, I leaked it a bit to early…yes…you heard me right…the FAQ page does not provide ANY contact information to the user attempting to get in touch to find out why their account was disabled. Facebook, seriously? Are. You. Kidding. Me?!
Here is the fully open disabled user FAQ page, with…(yes I’m going to say it again)…NO CONTACT INFORMATION:
Let’s recap for a moment here on where Facebook had a FAIL of EPIC proportions:
•First and foremost, disabled a users account without any absolute reason
•Provided the user with no explanation, let alone a detailed explanation of the problem
•Did not provide any steps to re-enable or bring their account back online
•Worst of all, did not provide any contact information to the user for them to contact facebook.
A lot of the actions above can be easily handled by setting up triggers in your database or code. The disabling action should trigger an email, of which, should contain the reasons for disabling the user. The reasons can be linked to the users profile, provide that string of text in the email. Furthermore the contact details should be provided in the email template and/or a list of things the user can do in the meantime. Rather than getting frustrated and writing a blog post, like me.
Now, I have actually emailed facebook, the disabled email address is disabled@facebook.com. I found that address thanks to Steve Ganz doing a search for me. (Which I’ll admit, I should have thought of doing, but was so confused I didn’t) The url to that page is http://www.facebook.com/help.php?hq=account+disabled. We will see how this comedic drama of my account being disabled turns out. Hopefully Facebook can clean up their customer support and disabled account policies in the meantime as well.
Updates:
7/13 @ 4:05pm: It is a Sunday and typically not a “business day”…but 12 hours since my account was disabled and still no contact from facebook support or a reply to the disabled email address.
7/13 @ 4:30pm: Thanks to a tip from @carlayoung on twitter, I have fwd’ed my email to their appeals@facebook.com email address for yet another attempt at opening communication lines up.
7/14 @ 8:05am: It has been a full day since my first emails have been sent off to Facebook’s disabled support and I still have not received an email. My account is still disabled.
7/15 @ 4:55 pm: Facebook finally re-actived my account and said that I need to browse Facebook less…interestingly enough, they state there are rate limits, but refuse to state what those rate limits are.
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+1 Vote up Vote down Ellen Petry Leanse · 113 weeks ago
I'm commenting on this in hopes that someone from Facebook will read this, and what's above.
To start: I am a HUGE Facebook fan. I often speak at a keynote level on social media, and feature Facebook as my exemplar. I coach VP and C-level execs, often from well-known enterprises, on the business productivity of social networks (again, with Facebook prominently featured), and I host webinars on using social networks (again, Facebook) to build business results.
And I'm a pretty low-key person, I think; not the type to put hate mail, profanities, spam or other offensive content anywhere, really, and certainly not anywhere in my online presence. That would violate my "personal TOS" even more than it might those of any online service I used.
So I was astonished to receive a warning message last week, similar to that above, saying that I had violated Facebook's TOS by putting offensive, hateful, profane etc. content on someone's wall.
To be clear: I didn't.
But my only path to get rid of the message was to "acknowledge" that I had rec'd it, which to me felt like admitting or agreeing to having made an offense.
I would never acknowledge something that I hadn't done. I left the warning message as it was and did not acknowledge.
I did write to Facebook customer support about this, and (although I never rec'd any sort of response) after a few days the warning message just went away.
So many things were wrong with the experience that Facebook delivered when they sent me this message. It was clear, from the workflow and the wording, that they were expecting the worst from their users rather than the best. That is really a bad way for a company to view their users.
Also, they gave me no specific information...and trust me, if something had triggered this punitive message, they had the data; it would have only been fair for them to share that data with me. I had absolutely no idea what post they might of been referring to...where and when I had ostensibly put the inappropriate content, what the content had been, what I should do to set it right.
Can you envision being stopped by some sort of law enforcement official and being told that you had done something wrong, and that you were at risk of being cited for it, so don't do it again—but not being told what you had done wrong? Or, if you're a parent, telling one of your kids to "Stop it!" but not telling them what they should stop? I was truly befuddled by Facebook's message and followed the same path described above (read the info that FB had sent me to) and again...nothing. No relevant content, no specifics, no path to set it right.
Facebook is a world-class service with a ton of vision and very high-quality performance on so many levels. However, the "resolution" part of their customer experience is a violation of their brand promise and a true breakdown in the sophistication of the service. It feels reflexive, not thought out, punitive, caustic and nasty.
If someone from Facebook is reading this, first: thanks, and second: get some of those smart, talented people on your team to flow-chart what might trigger a warning message, what the various causes or possibilities for that message might be, and then create the messaging, specific content, and resolution path that would allow a user to resolve it. And, as you do so, assume the best from your users rather than the worst. I assure you, if you expect that of them, you will be much more likely to resolve issues positivity rather than offend your users and weaken the great brand that you have.
thanks,
Ellen Reply
0 replies · active less than 1 minute ago 0 Vote up Vote down Tony Adam · 113 weeks ago
@Ellen Thanks for the great comment and feedback and I totally agree with your points as well! It's amazing they haven't developed a system for this yet. There has been so much bad PR about it and here lies yet another reputation management issue. Reply
0 replies · active less than 1 minute ago 0 Vote up Vote down Mike Cunningham · 113 weeks ago
You know these Services are set up to make it hard to near impossible to regain your account and information.
Remember he days when it was impossible to quit AOL?
I'm having a similar but not quite alike problem with MySpace. I admit I blew the Email address for logon by putting 2 @'s in it. I admit I can't type. I've written to the help people, sent the "salute" mug shot picture required, only to get back the same form letter from a robot telling me to do what I just did.
Oh yeah, thanks for the reminder, Nice quiet Sunday, good time to devote my energy to tracking down MYSpace leaders. I guess I'll start with Wikipedia as Google hasn't helped.
Get Your Name On!
Mike
http://twitter.com/mike1mb Reply
0 replies · active less than 1 minute ago 0 Vote up Vote down C.J. · 113 weeks ago
I had the same a few days ago - no warning, and I had to find the email address to ask about it from google.
Not only was my profile disabled, but a facebook ad campaign I was runnig disappeared, as did the 'Page' I use to promote a business - all done well within their ToS.
When I got an answer as to why my account had been disabled, it was because I had changed my profile name a few months ago. You have to get approval to change your name, so they had already 'okayed' it - then several months later, close down my profile and my ads for something they'd already approved - with no warning, and no telling me how to communicate with them about it. Sheer stupidity.
They did restore everything after a couple of days, and I'm still at a complete loss to understand what on earth they thought they were playing at. Reply
0 replies · active less than 1 minute ago 0 Vote up Vote down Clickfire · 113 weeks ago
I think it's a mistake to ban users like this from a service and not give them any way of appeal. Reply
0 replies · active less than 1 minute ago +1 Vote up Vote down Roney · 113 weeks ago
It's an unfortunate welcome to the club:(
Each attempt to learn more about the disabling of your account reduces the probability of getting the account reinstated I have discovered.
The only potential upside is that they will not share any information with third parties but their bureaucratic tendencies melts this hope away as well.
Hopefully the new board member will convince FB to have an Amnesty Day to reinstate accounts since the entire disabling approach is rather web2.0-Nazi like:( Reply
0 replies · active less than 1 minute ago +1 Vote up Vote down holly · 112 weeks ago
It seems strange that just a few months ago Facebook was facing issues because users could not fully delete their accounts and now they are doing it for them...with no warning. All very odd. Reply
0 replies · active less than 1 minute ago Social Media Is Always Changing… But Do You Change With It?
[...] is not a whole lot to talk about in regards to social communities. Outside of Facebook deciding to ban people at random, social communities are pretty much business as [...]
Blog Post - Facebook Deleting Accounts? - eCommerce Forums - eBiz Insider Magazine
[...] TOS. This is an interesting read and offers some helpful tips if you find you've been suspended. Thanks Facebook for stripping me of your service __________________ Jean Lloyd Solid Cactus - Sr. Search Engine Marketing [...]
0 Vote up Vote down terry chay · 112 weeks ago
Is it ironic that I found out about this post because Tony’s notes-blog on Facebook is still active and I saw it on my Facebook feed? Reply
0 replies · active less than 1 minute ago 0 Vote up Vote down Tony Adam · 112 weeks ago
@terrychay - I had remove and/or update all the apps that were on my facebook profile...my account was re-activated on 7/15. Reply
0 replies · active less than 1 minute ago +1 Vote up Vote down paisley · 109 weeks ago
Tony,
Unfortunately with Facebook and Myspace, it's a free service.. one of the risks with using this is there is not real "agreement" from facebook's end to provide you service.
This is where LinkedIn's account upgrade has a little teeth, at least you do have some expectation of service because you have "purchased" something.
I understand your ire completely, i used to have like 50k friends on myspace which were people that wanted my information on dance music events worldwide. it was about a $5k a month side business, however once that profile was removed, so was my reach.
it does however resemble SEO with Google or Yahoo! (not sure how much today, tho now that we have employees from both focused on search.. unlike the people who accept yahoo! express submit applications)
however, trying to get a listing in yahoo! directory once you have changed a URL is near impossible.. after billing the client for 42 man hours in trying to geta URL changed, we finally had to give up and submit a duplicate URL.
you are lucky you got your profile back.. myspace never replied, nor restored my profile, of course i never renewed my 55k monthly ad spend for 4 different clients either. Reply
0 replies · active less than 1 minute ago -1 Vote up Vote down Lalah · 95 weeks ago
Facebook disabled my account for no reason. No email or warning. I signed up to run an ad for a non-profit group and it was approved. Within an hour my account was disabled? The group is still up and going but it say, has no administrators. So, Facebook is charging me for an ad, when I can't even log in with my own account? Sounds like a rip off to me. I contacted the State Attorney General's office and filed a complaint. Because when any money exchanges, it's a transaction. And they don't have any way for you to contact them other through emails, which they don't respond to. I'm going to small claims court if it doesn't get taken care of. You can't charge someone for a service and then not give them access to that service. It's ridiculous. I read that some students in Canda are suing Facebook as well over Privacy issues. Too bad Americans don't take that attitude, we'd probably get more satisfaction, instead of complaining about it. I say stop the whining and get some action done. File a complaint with the State Attorney General. When there are enough complaints, Facebook will change their operations and accessibility. Reply
0 replies · active less than 1 minute ago 0 Vote up Vote down jessica · 85 weeks ago
my account was disabled yesterday afternoon because i "sent too many messages" i have sent emails to about 4 different facebook emails i've seen and have recieved nothing in return.
what are the chances of them actually reactivating my account? Reply
0 replies · active less than 1 minute ago 0 Vote up Vote down Malhaar · 83 weeks ago
Facebook fails when it comes to service, I got disabled once for three weeks, it took that long for my message to get through.. and when I got my account back I got disabled immediately after logging in, so I email again and 5 days later get my account back, and after 24 hours im disabled again! They really need to sort out their methods of disabling accounts its mind blowingly stupid the way they do it right now! Reply
0 replies · active less than 1 minute ago +2 Vote up Vote down janis · 82 weeks ago
Hi.. yes the very same has happened to me and its just weird cos i barely use my account and i dont send many msgs or take up much space. So strange. I just want my account back you know. There are ppl on there who are gonna start wondering what the hell happened to me. Anyway. If anyone can help.... janis.leroux@gmail.com Reply
0 replies · active less than 1 minute ago +1 Vote up Vote down Kat · 75 weeks ago
I have been trying to get a response from Facebook since May 31st as to why they disabled my account. I have sent numerous e-mails to them to no response. I have e-mailed warning@facebook.com, info+06gfreez@facebookmail.com, appeals@facebook.com, diabled@facebook.com, and info@facebook.com and I have not received one darn response. I mean I am also with other sites and they are never this bad. Pleading means nothing to them. I don't know what else to do. Reply
0 replies · active less than 1 minute ago 0 Vote up Vote down Lucas · 73 weeks ago
I was on this morning without a problem. Then at lunch time today could not get back in. Saying they disable my account. I was like excuse me?
what did I do, I am just a simple user with friends and family on my list of contacts. Not running no groups or being a admin or whatever. Yes i am in groups, no crime with that since they encourage to have so many different type of groups.
So I email them and suprise I got an email back within the hour. But nothing since over 2 hours now.
Hi,
The Facebook Team has received your inquiry. We should get back to you soon. In the meantime, we encourage you to review our Terms of Use (http://www.facebook.com/terms.php) for more information.
Thanks for contacting Facebook,
The Facebook Team
They should really look toward the bad things going on their site before disabling people accounts without no reason or warning.
Like you know how many porn is on that site or above other stupid things they should really look into before looking at people accounts to see how many friends they have or how much you are browsing on facebook. I mean seriously.....holy moly! Reply
0 replies · active less than 1 minute ago 0 Vote up Vote down HARVEY ANDERSON · 71 weeks ago
Greedings to all FaceBook users my FaceBook account was “DISABLE” 05-03-09 for to many friends request. but when you read the terms of Agreedment it dose not say how many friend request you can add like for example you can only add 50/100/75 something like that but when you read the Agreedment it dose not say anything about that. but at the end of the day i realy like FaceBook thank you.HARVEY Reply
0 replies · active less than 1 minute ago 0 Vote up Vote down Daniel James · 70 weeks ago
@Lucas,
Who did you email to get your reply back, because i am in the same situation as you and i am having some confusion over who to contact over at facebook email-wise.
thanks Reply
0 replies · active less than 1 minute ago 0 Vote up Vote down Mark A. Dix · 65 weeks ago
May I ask everyone "How should Facebook change its account disabling policy?" at least to me is quite simple. Before I present my answer, I want to ask Facebook if there is anyone at Facebook that knows how to reason and treat people in a humane manner? The reason I ask this question is because Facebook on the surface appears to be user friendly and concerned about its members. However, upon closer examination Facebook does not have a due process and does not care at all about its members rights and feelings. Here are a few examples. Facebook limits the number of friends you can have and limits the number of friends you can make in a given period of time, limits the number of groups you can belong to, limits the number of messages you can send in a given period of time, limits the number of “polks” you can make and no doubt other limits I am not mentioning. All limits are ruthlessly enforced by giving you warnings you are breaching Facebook's limits without telling you what the specific limit number is and then disabling a member, or abruptly disabling a member without a warning and without saying what limit rate was breached and of course without a specific number that is deemed to be to "fast." Most members are permanently disabled and are told that Facebooks decision is final and there is no recourse. To me this is analogous to giving speeding tickets without having a speed limit posted. In Facebook warnings and in their disabling message they call a "guilty" member a scammer or spammer and further say you "may be" infringing upon the rights other members by harassment.
Now to answer the question " "How should Facebook change its account disabling policy?" To me all Facebook or should I say at this time "Facelessbook" has to do if, dare, I use the terms thinks or feels, it needs limits to guard against real threats to security is to program in limit governors that will stop the breach of policy before it is breached. Limit governors will enforce the Facebook policy of limits and will as well be a security measure to guard against real scammers and spammers. A limit governor is the same thing as a speed governor on a vehicle. As an old farm boy from Iowa I fail to see the difficulty in having a limit governor policy and implementing it with a computer program. With limit governors in place members will not be disabled because they will not be allowed to breach polices and real scammers and spammers will not be able to operate so why be a member?
If Facebook is treating its international members with ruthless complete disregard for their rights and feelings like it treats it domestic members with ruthless complete disregard for their rights and feelings I believe Facebook is not only giving itself a black eye it is also giving the United States of America a BIG black eye in the eyes of the rest of the world. I ask Facebook to please wake up and see the light. If you are so paranoid about your members governing themselves by self enforcement of your unknown limits and rates than at the very least give members an exact number that is considered a breach of your limits and rates and or place your own limit governors on whatever you want to governor and stop disabling members who are actually your friends as well as friends of other members. I believe if Facebook will place its own limit governors to enforce its policies or even better do away with limits and allow freedom to reign you will be creating good will for yourself and most importantly from your members and disabled former members.
One final note. In all fairness (?) to Facebook, Facebook SAYS it has an appeals process, customer support and a disabled contact to assist disabled members to sort through what has happened and evidently to somehow offer hope of membership reinstatement. However, because I know from first hand experience, the contact services are in fact a cruel automated ruse that does not reply at all or replies with an automated reply and nothing is done. There may be a very minuscule minority of disabled members who have been reinstated but a large VAST majority of disabled members are ignored and do not receive a due process and are never again allowed to be a member of Facebook. I want to ask everyone if Facebooks current polices and practices are what the United States of America is founded upon? Thank you for your time and interest in my answer to “"How should Facebook change its account disabling policy?" Sincerely yours, Mark A. Dix, Brooklyn, Iowa, USA Reply
0 replies · active less than 1 minute ago 0 Vote up Vote down Debra · 62 weeks ago
Ellen thanks for the above message to us. I have been
on Facebook every day for the last several months. I
created an account back in April. I have worked hard to
get up a list of contacts there. I have gotten quite far in
Farmtown and Yoville.
All of a sudden last evening when I went to log in I couldn't
log in. I finally, after much Googling, found the link above
and wrote the Customer Service people. I received
nothing from them before this happened that my account
had been disabled. In fact, my whole profile has disappeared
and I have disappeared off my friends pages as well.
I am cerainly not going to start all over with Farmtown and
Yoville. I've come too far. Furthermore when I did try to
log in I was sent to a blank page that said Welcome to
Facebook. A new account page? Whatever for?
By the time Facebook Team responded to me, which
was late this morning, they only told me I logged in with
the wrong email address and not to create a new account
or I would make things more confusing.
Where is my profile?!
Debra Reply
0 replies · active less than 1 minute ago 0 Vote up Vote down Carole Hunter · 60 weeks ago
I was running along on Facebook since Feb - and leaving comments everytime one of my friends posted a thought. Sometimes those thoughts led to "comment conversations" and that is called chatting on the wall which ie verboten. I never got a warning, never got an email - I just got banned for 4 days. After being allowed back I noticed my posts would stay gray for a long time before hitting the comment box. I got nervous so I deactivated my old account and spent 8 hours building a new one and I also emailed many peeps asking them to req my friendship so not to overuse that and get a warning.
Everything was fine until yesterday. I got a warning in my email - did not see it till too late since my email screen and FB are two different screens. A warning came up on my wall after I commented and then a box telling me I hd violated one of the following terms yadda yadda yadda.
You know what - I don't care - I reached a point where it bores me and I have all the email addresses of peeps I want to contact.
I think that they are running it like a Communist organization because complaints are valid as I read them here. Terms and conditions are too vague. I comment a lot what is the limit??? Has anyone personally reported me? No. If they did then I should get a warning and guess what the warning should say who reported me so I can block them or unfriend them. Wouldn't that be a fairer way to do things?
What do you expect from kids who we have given power to by joining?
Me I am back to email, texting and imagine this - phone calls.
I am an adult I don't need to call them names Reply
0 replies · active less than 1 minute ago 0 Vote up Vote down Robin · 60 weeks ago
Today, July 20th. I was sent a warning that my account could be disabled for violation of terms of service. With in 15 minutes, my account was disabled. Of course they do NOT tell you why or what you did. I wrote to the only address I could find and told them I am a 57 year old woman, not some child playing around on the Internet.
I got the same form letter back that all of you got. I still have not heard anything and it's upset me terribly. Anyone can look at my profile and they will not see curse words, they will not see porn.
What is wrong with them? Is this just a program that spits out names at random and they decide to ban them, disable them, or terminate them?? Big Brother is watching, but they don't know what they are looking at.
My family has told me my whole profile is gone and all of my comments on other's pages. I don't know the answer, but I do know this is wrong to do this to innocent people.
What can we do? Reply
0 replies · active less than 1 minute ago 0 Vote up Vote down Barbara · 60 weeks ago
I now know of several people, who have been banned or whose accounts have been closed, disabled and/or deleted on FaceBook......they have no idea why, the REAL reason, and as so many comments above, any 'notices' were vague and/or unfounded.
Puppy Throwing Girl Arrested After Thousands Protest Her On Facebook
Talk about a week of animal abuse. Following one woman who was placed under police protection after thousands of Facebook users protested her for throwing a cat in a trash bin, comes a girl who has been arrested for throwing puppies in a river. The Bosnian girl was arrested following another Facebook protest group.
How To Get Banned From Facebook: Sell Your Status Updates
How To Get Banned From Facebook: Sell Your Status Updates
Posted by Nick O'Neill on August 12th, 2009 12:56 AMShare 10 Comments Yesterday morning Facebook announced changes to their Site Governance documents which as a number of people pointed out removed the ability of users to profit from their status updates. More specifically Facebook states that “you will not use your personal profile for your own commercial gain”. While I’m assuming that this is supposed to be straight forward about selling things through your Facebook profile, part of me wonders why Facebook needed to make this explicit statement.
Welcome New Reader!
To stay up to date with all news, analysis, and security tips related to Facebook, complete these 2 quick steps:
« What Developers And Marketers Need To Know About Facebook’s New Inbox And Notification APIsFacebook Lite Leaked: A Simpler Version of Facebook »How To Get Banned From Facebook: Sell Your Status Updates
Posted by Nick O'Neill on August 12th, 2009 12:56 AMShare 10 Comments Yesterday morning Facebook announced changes to their Site Governance documents which as a number of people pointed out removed the ability of users to profit from their status updates. More specifically Facebook states that “you will not use your personal profile for your own commercial gain”. While I’m assuming that this is supposed to be straight forward about selling things through your Facebook profile, part of me wonders why Facebook needed to make this explicit statement.
Haters Call It “Selling Out”
Excuse my slang but is there anything wrong with posting updates that generate revenue? While I believe the intention of this new rule is to block pay-per-tweet-like companies, should it be completely banned? Where do you draw the line? If I am to write a post for example about the new Social Media Marketing program that I just launched through New Media School (had to drop a quick plug), is that posting an update for my own commercial gain?
Ultimately the definition becomes unclear but it’s pretty obvious what Facebook is trying to prevent: companies from launching get rich quick services through your Facebook profile and to prevent people like Jeremy Schoemaker from abusing the system (p.s. I’m not a hater Jeremy). In the world of internet marketing, you gotta try out just about anything but there is definitely a line you can cross (as we’ve seen before).
Goodbye Generic Pages
Facebook has also made a few other adjustments to their Facebook Governance document to clarify their stance on things. The largest that will impact the generic page creators is , “Pages are special profiles that may only be used to promote a business or other commercial, political, or charitable organization or endeavor (including non-profit organizations, political campaigns, bands, and celebrities). ” There were a number of businesses that were being generated around building out different generic Facebook Page verticals.
Honestly I thought the idea was really smart but the biggest issue was that it was ripe for abuse. Consider all the groups that were created prior to the limitations on sending out updates. Facebook is most definitely smart to err on the side of over protection to avoid users getting annoyed. There goes all those questionable business strategies though. Wasn’t that what the internet was built on though?
Welcome Iran!
As we previously wrote, some Iranians had interpreted Facebook’s statement that you couldn’t “use Facebook if you are in a country embargoed by the U.S., or are on the U.S. Treasury Department’s list of Specially Designated Nationals” to mean that Iran was banned. At the time, Facebook clarified to us that they won’t block Iranians, just commercial activity on the site from the country. As such, Facebook has updated the policy to the following:
If you are located in a country embargoed by the United States, or are on the U.S. Treasury Department’s list of Specially Designated Nationals you will not engage in commercial activities on Facebook (such as advertising or payments) or operate a Platform application or website.
So go ahead and welcome all Iranian members! You are free to use the site as you wish … as long as it’s not to make money. If you want to read more about Facebook’s proposed policies. Facebook has also stated that they will be providing a redlined version of the document in the very near future.
Posted by Nick O'Neill on August 12th, 2009 12:56 AMShare 10 Comments Yesterday morning Facebook announced changes to their Site Governance documents which as a number of people pointed out removed the ability of users to profit from their status updates. More specifically Facebook states that “you will not use your personal profile for your own commercial gain”. While I’m assuming that this is supposed to be straight forward about selling things through your Facebook profile, part of me wonders why Facebook needed to make this explicit statement.
Welcome New Reader!
To stay up to date with all news, analysis, and security tips related to Facebook, complete these 2 quick steps:
« What Developers And Marketers Need To Know About Facebook’s New Inbox And Notification APIsFacebook Lite Leaked: A Simpler Version of Facebook »How To Get Banned From Facebook: Sell Your Status Updates
Posted by Nick O'Neill on August 12th, 2009 12:56 AMShare 10 Comments Yesterday morning Facebook announced changes to their Site Governance documents which as a number of people pointed out removed the ability of users to profit from their status updates. More specifically Facebook states that “you will not use your personal profile for your own commercial gain”. While I’m assuming that this is supposed to be straight forward about selling things through your Facebook profile, part of me wonders why Facebook needed to make this explicit statement.
Haters Call It “Selling Out”
Excuse my slang but is there anything wrong with posting updates that generate revenue? While I believe the intention of this new rule is to block pay-per-tweet-like companies, should it be completely banned? Where do you draw the line? If I am to write a post for example about the new Social Media Marketing program that I just launched through New Media School (had to drop a quick plug), is that posting an update for my own commercial gain?
Ultimately the definition becomes unclear but it’s pretty obvious what Facebook is trying to prevent: companies from launching get rich quick services through your Facebook profile and to prevent people like Jeremy Schoemaker from abusing the system (p.s. I’m not a hater Jeremy). In the world of internet marketing, you gotta try out just about anything but there is definitely a line you can cross (as we’ve seen before).
Goodbye Generic Pages
Facebook has also made a few other adjustments to their Facebook Governance document to clarify their stance on things. The largest that will impact the generic page creators is , “Pages are special profiles that may only be used to promote a business or other commercial, political, or charitable organization or endeavor (including non-profit organizations, political campaigns, bands, and celebrities). ” There were a number of businesses that were being generated around building out different generic Facebook Page verticals.
Honestly I thought the idea was really smart but the biggest issue was that it was ripe for abuse. Consider all the groups that were created prior to the limitations on sending out updates. Facebook is most definitely smart to err on the side of over protection to avoid users getting annoyed. There goes all those questionable business strategies though. Wasn’t that what the internet was built on though?
Welcome Iran!
As we previously wrote, some Iranians had interpreted Facebook’s statement that you couldn’t “use Facebook if you are in a country embargoed by the U.S., or are on the U.S. Treasury Department’s list of Specially Designated Nationals” to mean that Iran was banned. At the time, Facebook clarified to us that they won’t block Iranians, just commercial activity on the site from the country. As such, Facebook has updated the policy to the following:
If you are located in a country embargoed by the United States, or are on the U.S. Treasury Department’s list of Specially Designated Nationals you will not engage in commercial activities on Facebook (such as advertising or payments) or operate a Platform application or website.
So go ahead and welcome all Iranian members! You are free to use the site as you wish … as long as it’s not to make money. If you want to read more about Facebook’s proposed policies. Facebook has also stated that they will be providing a redlined version of the document in the very near future.
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