Facebook banned me

[Falconeer]

3 hours ago, while I was chatting on Facebook, I got kicked out, logged off, and the same time (same instant) I received the following email:

Subject: Facebook Warning.


Hello,

You uploaded a photo that violates our Terms of Use and this photo has been removed. Facebook does not allow photos that attack an individual or group, or that contain nudity, drug use, violence or other violations of the Terms of Use. These policies are designed to ensure Facebook remains a safe, secure and trusted environment for all users, including the many children who use the site.

If you have any questions or concerns, you can visit our FAQ page at http://www.facebook.com/help/?topic=wphotos.

The Facebook Team

As you can see, the mail seems to point out to a "warning" not an instant ban, but insta-ban is what I got. If I try to log in I get an "account disabled" message. I have been "wiped" from Facebook and (obviously) no one can see me up there anymore. My page vanished, my messages, wall, comments, photos, all gone.

I have NO IDEA why they banned me, I have no clue about what photo they might be referring to, and I wonder why they didn't issue a warning and THEN eventually a ban, but did both things at the same time.

I searched a bit, and finally found an appeal link which I wrote a letter to. But googling around a bit seems to point out that I am screwed, that they won't renable my account, won't tell me what I did, and won't even respond me.

I feel pretty screwed and I can't wait for fucking 2010 to die in a ball of flame.

Any idea or suggestion? No, eh?



FAKE EDIT: I found this interesting document, which basically says all you can do to recover your account is know someone inside Facebook. Go figure. Well, any of you, maybe, by any chance, has connections?

http://www.digitalweddingforum.com/blog/facebook-expert-urges-you-to-cover-your-naughty-bits

Facebook Expert Urges You To Cover Your Naughty Bits
BY MARK LUTZ + FRIDAY, OCTOBER 30
Facebook turns a photographers world upside down! He almost lost his account and he’s still not sure exactly why.



Chris Meyer of CM Photographics is what you might call a Facebook fanboy. He has been singing the praises of Facebook to the professional photography community for quite some time now. Meyer’s business is a case study on Facebook’s very own advertising page and he’s even lectured at a DWF convention on the subject of FB marketing for photographers. That means that when Chris Meyer speaks of Facebook danger, we should listen! Chris recounts his own recent experiences which nearly cost him his Facebook account below…

___________________________________

About 2 weeks ago I received 3 emails at the exact same time from what appeared to be an automated FB email account, saying:

[...]


Luckily because I am featured on the FB advertising page for small businesses, and because I have worked with FB, and their PR company in the past, I had some people that I could contact directly to help me out with the situation, and was finally able to get reinstated.

Upon getting reinstated I received the following email from one of the User Operations people:

Photo content that you uploaded has been removed for violating Facebook’s Statement of Rights and Responsibilities. Photos containing nudity or other graphic or sexually suggestive content are not allowed. Unfortunately, for technical reasons, we are unable to provide further information about the removed content.

Ultimately I urge everyone to be EXTRA careful of the photos that you upload. The photos that I uploaded that were flagged were pretty mild boudoir pics. Definitely no nudity involved, and not really that suggestive at all. I have seen swimsuit pics that showed more than I did… I personally will no longer be uploading any boudoir photos, and will leave that up to the discression of the clients if they chose to upload them or not. Too much of my business revolves around Facebook to risk something like this again, where the judgement of what is in violation or not seems to be far to arbitrary.

I have asked their team (for whatever it is worth) to re-evaluate their suspension process… because if I didn’t have the contact info that I did, it would be next to impossible to get your account back up and running…

Hope this helps someone to avoid the mistakes and the downtime that I just had.

*sigh*

[IainC]

Shit dude. That's pretty harsh. I hope you get it sorted out soon.

[Oban]

Facebook does not allow nudity?

[Lantyssa]

You mean I could get banned and legitimately tell people I can't have a FB account?  Oh so tempting...

[IainC]

Facebook does not allow nudity?

I'm nearly always naked while browsing Facebook.

[Falconeer]

You mean I could get banned and legitimately tell people I can't have a FB account?  Oh so tempting...

That would be if we knew why I got banned, Lantyssa.
A friend of mine reported a user with nazi photos and enthusiastic status updates 4 months ago, he's still up there.

[rattran]

Perhaps it's because of your extensive criminal record. 

[Draegan]

I had no idea you could get banned from Facebook.

Thats awesome.

Sorry you lost all your photos and stuff. :(

[Sand]

They have weird auto-triggers set up. I got suspended for a week for supposedly asking people I didnt know to be friends. Thing was we were all school chums and all had multiple "mutual friends".
It went from me clicking "friend this person" and getting an auto pop up window that said "Do you really know this person?" to a couple clicks later "Your account has been suspended."

[Prospero]

Man if they actually banned people with photos of drug use half their users would be gone.

[Merusk]

You'd just uploaded a bunch of pics of the family trip. I recall seeing it in my stream but I didn't browse them, could it have been something in there?

Ed: - You DO have a historical problem with nudity and photos, after all.   

[CmdrSlack]

I suggest going full insane on this one. It has worked for Nerf going on 29 pages now.

[Sky]

You DO have a historical problem with nudity and photos, after all.   

[Pennilenko]

I reccomend that we rename "going full insane" to "going full nerf".

[Slayerik]

Going nerf-mold crazy?

[MuffinMan]

Why not just make a new facebook account? I'm sure there's nothing in place to stop you except for using a different e-mail address.

Also, in account settings there is an option to download everything in your account such as messages, photos and such. Maybe do a periodic backup so you don't lose everything next time you get banned, perv.

[Falconeer]

Also, in account settings there is an option to download everything in your account such as messages, photos and such. Maybe do a periodic backup so you don't lose everything next time you get banned, perv.

 

I had no idea! I would have done that every 15 minutes!

[TripleDES]

I suggest going full insane on this one. It has worked for Nerf going on 29 pages now.

In that case, I suggest unlocking his other thread instead. That one was way more hilarious.

[Cadaverine]

A friend of mine lost his FB account a couple weeks back due to a picture he had put up involving a vagina, or something.  He just created a new account with a different name, and was back to doing whatever people do on Facebook.

[Falconeer]

The big big deal to me is just the huge amount of messages, pictures and comments I had strong emotional attachment to. My bad for depending on computers and not backing it up. I just had no idea something like this could ever happen.

[schild]

Good thing you already acquired the services of a lawyer.

[Grimwell]

Can you provide examples of the naked pics you posted to cause this ban?

Maybe we can helP???
 

[Falconeer]

But I didn't post any naked picture!

[Yegolev]

Not this week, maybe?

[Nerf]

I reccomend that we rename "going full insane" to "going full nerf".

There isn't any other form of nerf than full nerf.  Remember kids - it's Nerf, or nothing.  Choose wisely.

[Azazel]

But I didn't post any naked picture!

I didn't realise you took, owned or appeared in any photos that didn't feature some kind of nudity? 

[Falconeer]

I've been asking friends for help on pointing out what could have caused it, and I think they banned me for this:

NSFW

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3584773/389780.jpg


That's a Nobuyoshi Araki picture, if you just google his name you get more and worse than that.
And it has been buried in one of my folders for more than a year. I guess at some point, someone (I'd PAY to know who!), flagged it and screwed me. No fair warning, just banned me.

I guess.

[Ironwood]

Well, that would do it..

Interesting to me that only facebook friends should see your pics (unless you're retarded) so it's either a large coincidence or a mate shopping you in.

[TripleDES]

Not that I'm a prude, the contrary, I've a fair share of porn on my computer and some of it goes beyond the norm...

But seriously, what's it with people filling all sort of places up with porn? On Facebook, on cellphones, on PMPs and god knows what other (public) data "repositories"? Can't you guys get along more than half an hour without looking at it?!

--edit: Then again, when dabbling around on OpenBook, some people are doing worse, by just using their keyboard...

[Tebonas]

Lucky you, I had to find and go to a specific link to delete my Facebook account and then refrain for days from logging in. If I had known there was an easier way...

[Falconeer]

Not that I'm a prude, the contrary, I've a fair share of porn on my computer and some of it goes beyond the norm...

But seriously, what's it with people filling all sort of places up with porn? On Facebook, on cellphones, on PMPs and god knows what other (public) data "repositories"? Can't you guys get along more than half an hour without looking at it?!

That photo is not porn.

[Arthur_Parker]

Dude, there's also a tied up mostly naked chick in front of your record collection.

[TripleDES]

That photo is not porn.

In your polyamorous pansexual world, it may probably just be called art and nudity, but in the regular world, this is primarily seen as porn. And even if you notch it down to plain nudity, it's still against the ToS of virtually all big sites.

And with your recent experience with the US in regards to that, you should know better. To the average bible-belt American, this is probably sodomy.

[IainC]

I'm a pretty open-minded guy who accepts that there are different thresholds for taste and decency and that what I consider acceptable isn't necessarily a metric for anyone else. Having said that, there is no way that picture falls within any reasonable definition of good taste. The Human League? Really?

[Ironwood]