If you are wondering why I haven’t been active on my Facebook/biologycorner page, then let me share the story of how I got cancelled by Meta. Before you ask, I didn’t do anything wrong, and my last post showed my pet bearded dragon in a Santa hat. I have been a Facebook user for over a decade and did not have any “strikes” on my account. I mainly used my private account to keep up with friends and family. A few years ago, I did create an Instagram account, which didn’t get much use, but I had aspirations to share more on that platform. The Instagram account would prove to be my undoing. Here’s what happened.
On December 25th, 2024, I tried to log into my Facebook account and got this ominous pop-up.
Notice the Instagram account listed is qgefimov-rabykov-zp2zgbwu. This is definitely not me. Someone added this user to my account. I don’t know what (if anything) this user did, but it resulted in the suspension. The next part of the instructions says to log into Instagram to appeal. Unfortunately, when logging into to Instagram, I receive this message.
My account, or activity, doesn’t follow our Community Standards… You cannot request another review of this decision.
Now if you have ever tried to deal with any of these tech companies, you’ll find that there is no number to call, and support forums are not helpful. So, I start searching for resources on how to resolve this issue, if there is any possible resolution. Next, I find myself in a Reddit community, https://www.reddit.com/r/facebookdisabledme/. It has over 22k members with most reporting the same exact issues, some dating back to over a year ago. Apparently, this issue has been going on for a while, though Meta has not addressed it (or even admitted to there being a problem at all.)
What To Do Now?
I have taken a couple of the recommended steps to trying to get my account back. First, I wrote a letter to my state representative. Then I filed a report with my state’s attorney general. I also sent several emails to the “support” email listed on the pages, but I don’t think those actually go anywhere. I do not intend to pay a lawyer to try to resolve this, mainly because I don’t really depend on FB for income. It was always just a way to share Biologycorner resources and collaborate with other biology teachers. I will miss that!
I’m also sharing this as a cautionary tale to others. Meta platforms like Instagram and Facebook, can remove you without any notice or way to appeal that decision. If you have thousands of family photos on those platforms, they may be gone forever. Any contacts you’ve made, personal or business, also gone.
The “hack” that got my account suspended also seems to be accelerating, with more reports daily on the reddit feed. I’m not even sure you can protect your account with 2FA, because I had that turned on with my FB account and this still happened. My advice, download all of your personal photos and contacts, and do not depend on Meta to safeguard your property. They do not care.
I will not be making a new account on Meta platforms. You might have heard the saying that if you aren’t paying for a service, then you ARE the product. This is the case for most social media accounts. FB depends on its own users to make the content that drives other users to its site so that it can then feed users advertisements. In the past few years, I’ve seen fewer friend posts between a barrage of sponsored content and ads.
Another reason to divest from Meta – on Dec 30th, Meta announced that it will add AI users to their platforms. So now you’ll get a barrage of ads plus AI generated content masquerading as real people. Clearly, my modest little biology page on FB is not what their company really cares about. And they certainly don’t care about fraud and account security.
Thanks for sticking with me to the end, and following my FB Biologycorner page. I think that it is still up (for now) but I have no ability to update it or interact with subscribers. Biologycorner, the website, isn’t going anywhere, just my social media presence on Facebook. You can now find me on BlueSky. BlueSky does have a robust science and educator feed, so we’ll see how that goes.
