Facebook Accidentally Deactivates Accounts, Would Yours Be Safe?
A recent Facebook bug accidentally deactivated a number of user accounts today that it deemed as unauthentic, asking users to verify their accounts by scanning a government issued id.
While this is certainly unfortunate, and quite a hassle for any legitimate user whose account was temporarily deactivated, it does raise a point to explain the importance of only having one profile, your own self.
Many people initially create a profile with a business name, realize they need a fan page instead, so they do that. But they never go back to assign the fan page to their personal profile, their actual personal profile. Creating a profile for anyone/thing other than your actual self is technically a violation of Facebook policy and, at any time, FB could deactivate any profile that violates this policy. Fine, they deactivate the profile, but what about the fan page you created with it? Well, if that profile was the only admin of the fan page, you’ve likely just lost your fan page.
So… a word of advice. If you do have a profile like this that admins a fan page, make sure there is another admin of the fan page whose profile is actually legitimate. Or you can go one step further. Add your actual personal profile as the admin of your fan page, remove the illegitimate profile as an admin, and then deactivate it yourself.
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Hey Kathryn,
Thanks for sharing. So the non-profit has created a fan page? We generally recommend creating the fan page, slowly trying to get the "friends" to become fans, and then deactivating the other profile.
Lovely sharp post. Never thought that it was this easy. Extolment to you!
I'm glad FB is enforcing this quite frankly I'm tired of seeing people sell things through there personal pages. On the other side I don't like it for those who just don't know any better. Rather we want to or not, we'd better started reading terms of agreement before jumping in!
Very true Jesue!
I also agree...I mean I used to do that before I knew pages existed, but as soon as I found out I deleted all my contacts (over 2500 of them) that I did not know and started all over with a Fan Page and now I try to keep my personal profile to personal stuff with the occasional blog post...
Interesting! My account was deactivated, then reactivated utterly without my knowledge. Facebook e-mailed me this message: "We apologize for the inconvenience you have experienced. Your account was disabled in error. Your account has been reactivated and you will now be able to log in." There was no request for ID, and no explanation for what happened.
What does 'scanning a government issued id' mean? My aunt was requested to do this and she only has a profile. Sounded like a scam to me so advised her not do to anything yet.
Hello Michelle,
Well just so you know this is indeed a legitimate way Facebook verifies user accounts. It is not a scam at all. There was an issue yesterday because Facebook generally reserves this for profiles that are continually flagged as SPAM, so if her account does not get turned back on today, I would definitely send in the ID.
Hello Michelle,
Well just so you know this is indeed a legitimate way Facebook verifies user accounts. It is not a scam at all. There was an issue yesterday because Facebook generally reserves this for profiles that are continually flagged as SPAM, so if her account does not get turned back on today, I would definitely send in the ID.
Definitely true! I've been helping a non-profit that got set up by an "expert" and added lots of friends as a "personal" profile (the giveaway if you are not sure is Male/Female, age, relationship status = person) Not only can they not add fan pages without risking losing them, they can't email announcements or have custom tabs...and now that there is imminent risk of facebook pulling the plug - there are 1500 or so "friends" who aren't making the switch to the legit ones we set up.
Hey Kathryn,
Thanks for sharing. So the non-profit has created a fan page? We generally recommend creating the fan page, slowly trying to get the "friends" to become fans, and then deactivating the other profile.
Thanks Kathryn and David for this information. So David, please help me understand this? So the non-profit, or any other business that has a life body behind it, can start with a personal profile (the live body person), then they can develop a FAN/LIKE/Business Page. Then they can begin getting all their "friends" from their personal page to come over and LIKE their Business Page. Once that is accomplished, they go back and deactivate their PERSONAL PROFILE Page? If this is correct, that is not one of those flags to FB that caused them to deactivate accounts before? I hope this is not too elementary of a question.
Hello Valena,
What you want to do is keep your personal profile totally private and a fan page is focused only on business. As a matter of fact Facebook can and will ban your profile if you are using it for business. So what you do is start your fan page, and then just ask your friends to "like" it and then just keep the 2 totally separate. You would only post business information on your fan page and then personal information on your profile as you do now. There will be no reason to delete your personal profile. Even though you set up the fan page on the same account, your personal profile is NOT tied to your fan page...
I hope this helps!
I have a fan page with a large number of fans (2 million). I made the mistake of creating the fan page not with my personal profile but one made for the organization. However, I followed the advice and assigned several administrators. One morning woke up to see my organization facebook profile gone. I immediately checked the fan page, but it was there. Hadn't I assigned other administrators (and myself with my own personal profile) I'd probably be crying by now... One more thing, I strongly belive that my profile was "flagged" as "not a real person" by a "competitor", they probably made several people flag it trying to cause damage to the fanpage...I had some hints before it happened, so, becareful outhere!
Close call Martin! Yea, it would be sickening to lose a page with 2 million fans.
Close call Martin! Yea, it would be sickening to lose a page with 2 million fans.
Hello Valena,
What you want to do is keep your personal profile totally private and a fan page is focused only on business. As a matter of fact Facebook can and will ban your profile if you are using it for business. So what you do is start your fan page, and then just ask your friends to "like" it and then just keep the 2 totally separate. You would only post business information on your fan page and then personal information on your profile as you do now. There will be no reason to delete your personal profile. Even though you set up the fan page on the same account, your personal profile is NOT tied to your fan page...
I hope this helps!
I'm glad FB is enforcing this quite frankly I'm tired of seeing people sell things through there personal pages. On the other side I don't like it for those who just don't know any better. Rather we want to or not, we'd better started reading terms of agreement before jumping in!
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