2020-12-08 16:12:40

Hello.
It all started about a year ago when I was blocked on Facebook.
Facebook is very important to me because there are a lot of people I can talk to there only and it was the best platform for finding new people. For this reason, I'm pretty sure I haven't broken Facebook's rules.
One fine morning, I open Facebook and see that my account is blocked!
I was asked to send my documents. Some time after sending, when I try to authorize, I receive a message:
Your Account Has Been Disabled
You can't use Facebook because your account, or activity on it, didn't follow our Community Standards.
We have already reviewed this decision and it can't be reversed.
I tried to do a lot. I created new accounts (different IP), recently even bought existing accounts, but everything is useless. My accounts are being blocked.
Then I read that this is due to the political situation in the United States.
Many people have faced this problem. Moreover, I know a person whose Facebook business account was blocked for no reason.
And now my question is:
What can I do?
I'm preparing an official letter to Facebook Inc, but I don't know if this will help.
Thanks in advance!

2020-12-08 16:59:01

Almost certainly nothing.

My Blog
Twitter: @ajhicks1992

2020-12-08 18:17:07

My question is: what did you say or do to provoke this? Facebook rarely acts completely out of left field. I mean, sure, it happens, but this doesn't even sound legit to me.

Did you maybe state publicly that you think certain people should die or be killed?
Did you express really racist views on Facebook someplace public?
Did you try to stalk someone, hack them, anything like that?

See, I'm not saying you actually did any of that - or stuff I didn't mention, for that matter - but you didn't mention anything you might have done. It's just, "Hey, facebook randomly disabled my account and said it can't be reviewed", and I have trouble believing there isn't more to the story, that's all.

Check out my Manamon text walkthrough at the following link:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/z8ls3rc3f4mkb … n.txt?dl=1

2020-12-08 18:58:16

@Jayde
No, no and no.
As I said, in our countries, in Russia, Ukraine, there have been a lot of blockages lately. On the Internet, I found a lot of information about people who were blocked for no reason. And I read somewhere that the blocking of Russians and Ukrainians is related to the political situation in the United States.
I don't know, only Russians and Ukrainians, but this is what I heard.
Right now I only got one advice, to tweet with the hashtag #facebookdisabledme and the Facebook manager in my country.

2020-12-08 19:05:51

Nope, not buying it. Sorry. Try harder next time.
For 1 thing, facebook is a US based company. It's highly unlikely that they would just pander to the wishes of Russia / Ukraine.
For another, why on earth would those countries want random people booted off of facebook anyway? I uh, don't think you're quite important enough to warrant that, somehow.

2020-12-08 19:12:47

@haily_merry
pander to the wishes of Russia / Ukraine? No!
The US thinks that Russia interfered in the 2020 US presidential elections. It's the beginning. But I'd not like to talk about politics here and now.
One way or another, there are massive blockages in my countries. Now I know of cases of account recovery only if people achieve it through the media.
Moreover, I know a person from Russia. He uses Facebook only to communicate with friends, he has 2-3 people as friends. Doesn't publish anything or discuss taboo topics. Even he was blocked!

2020-12-08 20:38:43 (edited by omer 2020-12-08 20:39:14)

russia interfered  in 2020 elections? hahahahaha now that  was funny

2020-12-08 20:44:34

i am normaly not the kind of person to get in to polatix but i guess rase hell with facebook. and i mean it. and i herd they apparently did in the 2016 alection. but gonna have to reserch this one

i am a system, i have headmates, and that is my life, and my discord is rings2006wilson#8609

2020-12-08 20:50:50

Yes actually it's been proven that Russian state sponsored hacking and propaganda groups interfered (mostly unsuccessfully) in the 2016 election and attempted to do so again in this one.
I'm guessing that what's happening here is that Facebook is taking a better safe than sorry approach to this and blocking any suspected disinformation or bot pages from that region. Something Jonixter did or said made the AI believe he was part of that network.
It could also be that entire IP ranges are being blocked to stem the flood from a specific ISP or area and he just got caught up in it.
I have other potential theories as well, but no evidence for them.

2020-12-08 20:51:46

Ok, so, this is legit.  Russia almost certainly did interfere in the 2016 election, though they almost certainly didn't in 2020.  And before we all say "but I live in Russia, surely they didn't", every country does, including the U.S., the UK, etc etc etc. and everyone who lives in insert-country-here believes that their country is too good to stoop to such things.

One of the primary ways this was done was via Facebook and Twitter bots to spread misinformation, and it's possible that they got caught up in the mass bans for those.  I'm sure many legitimate people did.  But there's nothing to be done.  There's nothing to be done for US people either.  If the big tech platforms ban you, that's it.  Your best bet is to hope that the U.S. does follow through on the antitrust/antimonopoly stuff in the pipeline.  Sorry, but we *do* live in the world where Facebook/Twitter are essential and also it's fully legal for them to kick you off without recourse.

My Blog
Twitter: @ajhicks1992

2020-12-08 23:11:22

the theory of the ips being blocked maeks sence but is stupid and i thought that 2016 one was prooven but wasnt sure so now i am. nothing to say

i am a system, i have headmates, and that is my life, and my discord is rings2006wilson#8609

2020-12-09 12:24:47

Maybe it's time to start using Tor and getting a Facebook account in a completely different proxy, at least until you can get sufficient evidence to sue Facebook, although I don't know how that will work if you're not in the US.

Ulysses, KJ7ERC
She/they
Reedsy

2020-12-09 15:01:07

There's not too much you can do aside from leaving Facebook behind. If you did something they didn't like or were included in a block of IP addresses where someone else did it, that's it. If you shared a post going against the current narrative that COVID is extremely dangerous, or you support Donald Trump, or did any number of other things they don't like, that's grounds for getting blocked according to them.

Those who really want to contact you will find other ways to do so. Facebook is not essential when there are literally dozens of other ways to keep in touch. They quit being a free speech platform as soon as they started becoming a publisher by arbitrarily deciding what they will and will not allow on their platform. I wonder how long it'll be until your phone company decides to disconnect calls because you're talking with someone about Trump or COVID in a manner they don't like? That's essentially what Facebook and Twitter are doing now.

Grab my Adventure at C: stages Right here.

2020-12-09 15:16:09

@Green Gables Fan
Already. I created a Facebook account with a US IP. It was a VPS server. But today I received a block.
"Chris
I know people are pushing for unlocking. But through journalists and media in their country.

2020-12-09 17:40:02

@13
While they're no longer the best platforms, everyone who makes claims like yours ignores two things.  They've always been private companies, and free speech rights have never extended to private companies.  And also, every time we start in on the "they're biased in favor of the left" people look into it, do studies, etc, and fail to find evidence that there's bias going on.  If there were, you can bet congress would be waving the evidence around--but the best anyone can offer is an assurance that yes, it really happens, we swear, really, don't you believe in the invisible dragon?

U.S. telecoms companies are different legally speaking because they're categorized as something more like the mail or the electrical grid.  I think the term is neutral carrier.  But your telephone company won't be able to interfere with your phone calls unless congress first changes a lot of legislation.

@14
Everyone who tries to use a VPN for stuff seems to miss the bit about how Facebook or whoever can see that you're on a VPN.  When you use a VPN you're somewhat anonymous, but you're also waving a giant "I'm anonymous" flag for everyone to see because the VPN nodes have well-known IP addresses and share them between thousands of people each.

My Blog
Twitter: @ajhicks1992

2020-12-09 19:27:27

@camlorn
I didn’t use a VPN, but a VPS with a VPN server installed.

2020-12-09 19:34:51

The same still applies to data centers. That IP has more than likely been used by hundreds, if not thousands of different users before you.

2020-12-09 19:47:00

Yeah, there's databases of this stuff.  What you did screams to Facebook, "look at me, I'm being nefarious, watch as I create new accounts from a datacenter".  it doesn't really matter how you do this.  You can be anonymous on the internet, but you can't hide that you're being anonymous no matter how hard you try.

My Blog
Twitter: @ajhicks1992

2020-12-09 20:26:50

@16, Simple logic coming your way:
User logs into Facebook from VPN.
Facebook internally notes IP address in database.
Company employee happens to review this database and notices an odd IP address.
Or:
You do something to get flagged and your IP address is checked.
Facebook sees its from a VPS provider like Digital Ocean, or Vultr, or OVH.
Boom, anonymity blown.
Simple as that. IP addresses don't tend to lend themselves to hiding you very well.

"On two occasions I have been asked [by members of Parliament!]: 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out ?' I am not able rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question."    — Charles Babbage.
My Github

2020-12-09 20:46:52

Someone posted a topic earlier this year, and I believe I commented on it because China and Egypt seem to have the strictest lws in terms of censorship and the dark web.
The idea was to use a VPN, a peer-to-peer connection, and a virtual machine. Then you could basically choose the IP address that won't make it seem obvious that you are using an anonymous service.

Ulysses, KJ7ERC
She/they
Reedsy

2020-12-09 21:03:29

Bleh, come on guys.  All of those vps IPs are in well-known datacenters with well-known IPs.  Even if you don't have a database from the IANA saying who owns the IP, a tracert or reverse DNS usually reveals it.

It is ironically easier to protect yourself from a hostile government than from Facebook when it comes to anonymity, because Facebook is the party you're communicating with.  Whoever is at the far end will always be able to tell that you're anonymous if they want, one way or another.  They can't necessarily find out who you are, except that with Facebook part of what you're doing is literally telling them exactly that, but they'll still know you're anonymous.

My Blog
Twitter: @ajhicks1992

2020-12-10 00:42:36 (edited by defender 2020-12-10 11:24:08)

@Chris
Since when does supporting Trump get you blocked by Facebook or Twitter.  Could it maybe be because (oh I don't know) lots of outspoken racists sexists and homophobes like Trump too?
Those people would have been banned sooner or later regardless.  If you got kicked off of social media simply by publicly supporting Trump, you'd probably have heard about the tens of millions of purged accounts by now don't you think?  Even the pedophilic Jewish lizard person Illuminati members in the feminazi deep state shadow government at the area 51 black site aren't that good at staging  false flag MK Ultra gang stalking operations to control the sheeple drones yet...
I mean 9/11 and the moon landing were one thing, but this is big.


Also, please remind me again how a disease which causes at least some level of lasting negative effects in many people it infects regardless of symptoms, is a big problem for the over 75 in nursing homes and immunocompromised, spreads through the air, and survives for long periods on many surfaces isn't a big danger?
It sounds like you are willing to potentially sacrifice large swathes of the population simply because you and most of the people you know aren't at a high risk. That's pretty selfish don't you think?


If you criticized some of the lockdown measures, or the less than great data collection, or were worried about the new vaccine I could understand, but this is just ignorance and denialism, and it makes you sound like a fool.

2020-12-10 07:56:10

Well, apparently, Facebook is now in hot water after New York attorney general sued them for illegally monopolising Whatsapp and Instagram to better their business strategy.

Ulysses, KJ7ERC
She/they
Reedsy