I have a FB account but I almost never go on it or post anything so I have little experience with it.
Going to do some traveling with a buddy out west next month. He said he finally was going to cave to his family and start a Facebook page so he could post pictures of the Grand Canyon and White Sands, New Mexico.
So he sets one up with his email, even gives them his mobile telephone number and a profile picture.
Next day they blocked his account saying it violated their “Community Standards”. Other than his pic he didn’t post anything yet.
So he appealed and they made him send in a passcode and another picture of himself. Then they made him send a picture of his ID!
Then they blocked him for good and told him there was nothing he could do about it, fuck off, goodbye. I saw the message, that is about what it said!
He swears he’s never been on FB before and gotten banned for something. Now he wants me to post pictures of our trip so people can see them but I don’t want to that. I think FB is just a vehicle for bragging.
So, anyway, why doesn’t Facebook believe my friend is real even after the pictures, email, telephone number, and photo ID? I Googled it and found there are a lot of other people this has happened to.
Meanwhile there all sorts of click bait and scammers posting on it. What’s the deal?
Maybe someone had signed up with his email address and posted naughty things? I’ve had people sign up using my non-Facebook email and post stuff before I get a chance to close out the account.
Well, something is definitely amiss. Facebook wants customers like every other business, and they don’t ban people unless there is a definite problem. Maybe he did or didn’t cause it, but it exists for sure.
If his mobile number is relatively new to him, there’s a chance that the person who had it before was problematic on FB and they think it’s the same person.
I’m not sure that someone else could have previously used his email to setup a FB profile. So if someone used X@gmail.com to setup a FB profile years ago, I would think that trying to setup a FB profile with the same X@gmail.com email today would cause FB to say that profile already exists. Even if they banned the account, I would assume they would save the fact that it was X@gmail.com rather than purge all the info.
What he might want to do instead is to use a photo-sharing site for his photos and then ask a friend or relative on FB to share the link.
Facebook allows, or used to allow, you to set up a profile connected to an email address that isn’t yours. Every once in a while, I start getting messages on my non-Facebook email like “It looks like you’re having trouble logging in”, so I go to Facebook and reset the password for that account (which isn’t mine) – there are typically already pictures and a profile.
If I can figure out how to contact the person, I’ll do that. Otherwise, I tell Facebook to close the account.
Well, maybe not completely. I know FB can be great for keeping in touch with friends from the past and those who have moved away and such.
I’m just not into posting all my travel picks and saying “hey, dig me. Look at the great vacation I’m having and you’re not!” “Now I’m checking in at a great restaurant and you’re not!” It’s just so much fluff.
With all the places I’ve been to the pix would never end!
Yeah, I have no doubt of that. If they don’t send confirmation emails to the email address, then profiles can be created with random email addresses. However, I would think that rando’s profile would be linked to that email for all time in the future. So if the friend tried to create a profile with his email address of pkbitesfriend@gmail.com and a rando had already used that email address, I would think FB would not allow a new profile to be created. It would say there’s already a profile setup for pkbitesfriend@gmail.com and would allow him to recover it. If during the setup the friend ended up on some screens about recovering his password, then it would be likely that someone had previously created a profile using his email.
It could also be the name he used. They want all real names, and sometimes ask for IDs to verify that the name used isn’t made up. If you use something like “Mike YankeesSuck” you would likely get bounced.
But I know people that use all kind of goofy names on their FB. Close Clint Taurus, Jim Lickey, etc… And their real names are nowhere near those. What does FB care, anyway?
Like I said, I don’t use it much, so I’m quite ignorant about their motivation.
FB wants people to be people, not aliases. They only enforce it sporadically, but if it is brought to their attention they often follow up. Many names sneak past their automated rules. The more obvious the fake name, the more likely they are to hassle you. And since a lot of the people doing the follow up aren’t native English speakers, they can miss the bad puns.
Is there a good reason why he’d ask you to post his vacation pictures? That seems odd. Since his family was pressuring him to set up an FB account, why can’t one of them post the pictures?
Presumably, they have algorithms that look for obvious false names (like Mickey Mouse), swears, political messages, etc. If they get reports on people with otherwise “normal” names and they investigate enough to suspect something, they will ask for a license or other form of ID.
They also sporadically just ask them and their friends. I’ve gotten the message asking me if someone is using their real name–though it has been a while. And, yes, plenty of people would tell the truth.
I’d suggest trying a different social media account. I would have suggested Instagram, which is the social media for photos, but that is also owned by Facebook. Probably the easiest alternative would be Twitter.
Alternatively he could set up an account with completely different credentials, ie a different email address and sign up with an email on a desktop, not using your phone number, and with a different image with multiple people in it for his avatar.
