r/facebook

I used Facebook a lot as a kid around 2009–2012. Back then it just felt like a normal social media site for memes, random posts, games, news, chatting with classmates etc.

Then smartphones became common and pretty much everyone in my age group moved to apps like WhatsApp. Facebook stopped being “the” place people my age used socially. Most of us just abandoned our accounts and never logged in again.

Fast forward many years later and I met my girlfriend in Tokyo and apparently she and a lot of people in her social circle still actively use Meta/Facebook for chatting over there, sharing posts, news, and staying connected. She had asked for my Facebook, so I reinstalled it and logged back into my ancient account.

Honestly, I was shocked by what I saw.

My feed was full of ragebait, fake AI generated images, political propaganda, hateful posts targeting Muslims, Jews, Men, Women, basically everyone. Mind you, this account was abandoned for over a decade and those posts are what the algorithm decided to show to what was supposedly be a "neutral feed" account.
Even completely unrelated posts had comment sections full of hostility and conspiracy nonsense. It felt like the algorithm was constantly trying to farm outrage from old senior users.

Of course there were still some normal posts, but the overall atmosphere felt completely different from the Facebook I remembered as a kid.

Did Facebook gradually become like this over time or is it just what the algorithm pushes now if you return after years away? Because the experience genuinely felt dystopian compared to what I remembered and its so cringe to see what became of it.

I work as a journalist for a news outlet. We have a Facebook page where we post our articles. A few months ago, more than half of the stories we published there started being flagged by Meta. The posts were removed, with the explanation that we were violating their guidelines. This happened to a majority of the posts that had a link to our website, whether we shared the article normally with a link or posted the link in the comment section. Important note: we publish completely ordinary local news from our community. One of the posts that was removed was a post encouraging our followers to send in their photos from our countrys national day celebrations.

Eventually, my personal Facebook account was suspended. I lost access to both Facebook and Messenger. The others journalists also received restrictions on their private accounts.

As you know, it is almost impossible to get in touch with a real human being at Meta. And that brings me to what the title of this post is about — why you probably won’t like how I got my account back.

One of the advantages of working in the media is that you can put pressure on people in positions of power. In many ways, it is unfortunate but true that this comes with certain advantages. We contacted various industry organizations in our country for help, but we did not get very far. However, with enough pressure, we managed to get access to a person who works for Meta in the Nordic region. I do not know what kind of magic he performed, but shortly afterward I got my account back, and the restrictions on our newspaper’s Facebook page were lifted. I got a confirmation email from a real person at Meta that they had lifted the restrictions.

We would never have succeeded with this if we had not worked in the media industry. I am happy to have my account back, but I am still furious with Meta. We still do not know why our content was flagged, other than Meta confirming that it was their AI system that did it.

I truly feel for everyone experiencing Meta’s arrogance and abuse of power. I hope they are forced to take action soon, because their AI is completely out of control right now.

Here is the hard truth: once Facebook bans or restricts your account, your audience is gone.
No way to reach them. No way to follow up. No way to rebuild from where you left off.

Unless you were smart enough to save your contacts BEFORE it happened.

The simplest way to protect yourself:

Use a contact management tool that saves both your members' Facebook profiles AND their email addresses in one place.

Several tools out there do this.

That way, the moment you open a new account, you send one message and reconnect with everyone instantly.

That account and audience you have built for years deserve protection - Be proactive

Your Group can also be rebuilt faster than you think when your contacts are already saved and ready to reach.

C

Hey everyone!

Looking for an experienced Meta Ads specialist for long-term cooperation.

We're a PR agency managing ~50 clients and we need a reliable freelancer to handle 30-40 Meta Ads accounts on an ongoing basis.

What the work looks like:

• Boosting selected posts, reach & awareness campaigns, traffic to website
• Simple campaign setups — no complex conversion funnels
• Monthly ad budgets around 400 PLN per account
• You'll work with our Team Leaders (they brief you, you execute & report)
• Occasional ad-hoc requests during business hours (9-15)

What we're looking for:

• Good working knowledge of Meta Ads Manager
• Availability during business hours for quick questions
• Ability to prepare simple monthly reports per account
• Ability to prepare basic estimations for new clients

What we offer:

• 100 PLN net per account per month (~3,000-4,000 PLN/month recurring)
• Stable, long-term cooperation
• Clear briefing structure — no guessing what the client wants
• Potential to grow as we onboard more clients

If you're interested, drop me a message with a short intro and a few anonymized screenshots from your Ads Manager so I can see how you work.

Hi there,

I foolishly clicked 'remove' on the 2FA option of authentication app, and now the only option I see is my cell phone. But I want to have the authentication code option - and can't seem to re-access it or set up a new one.

There simply isn't the option to generate a new QR code anymore.

Nor turn off 2FA as I apparently have the more advanced security protection, even though I am not Meta Verified. No idea how to turn this off either.

How do I get a new QR code generated? Going nuts here!

Thank you so much

Katarina

P.S. Tried talking to Meta support and it was all AI, and it concluded it cannot help me.

Like, I just got a warning because i keep reporting AI generated fake people dropshipping items from china pretending it's their own art.

Facebook really fell off huh, Is there no human support? We get punished for reporting scammer, Is that really how it works now?

Hello everyone, thanks for taking the time to read this, to cut it short i just started my own business all good, didn't steal anyone's content, didn't fake anything, all legit i make my own pictures and reels/video, stories as well, all was good then i ran ads, all went well then all of a sudden i get banned for automation? Which i didn't do at all, my page is small i have 41 followers and all of them are people i know and they're showing me support, i got banned and sent an appeal with nothing in return, they say it'll take 48h yet they send me an instant review even when i go to the support home i find nothing, idk what to do like is there anyone i can contact concerning this because i know for a fact i did nothing wrong i was legit and everything, can anyone please help me..

This app has become 80% ads.

Out of 10 feed posts 6 were ads today on my account.

They should rename this to “AdBook”

Anyone else notice the insane amount of ads recently?

#boycotting it and deleting it. Goodbye ✌️

Before monetisation,
I was doing 120 million views/month with Original content created by me and edited by me, but after monetisation with the same kind of effort with the same number of videos and still in the Original category, the views just did not reach even 50% of the mark. What look like an easy $5K a month now turns out to be just $500 a month?

Is anyone else getting this? FB keeps giving me that "We limit how often you can post, comment or do other things in a given amount of time in order to help protect the community from spam. You can try again later." popup when trying to post in groups I'm a member of and pages that I've followed for MONTHS. Even when trying to reply to comments I'm tagged in!
Been happening for 3 days now.

If you run a Facebook group. You post consistently. You get engagement.

But 90% of those members? You have no way to reach them outside of Facebook.

No email. No phone number. No follow-up sequence. Nothing.

If Meta restricts your group, page or account tomorrow — or simply changes the algorithm — your entire audience disappears overnight.

A thought for myself and you.
Just thinking aloud

As most of us are experiencing the recent suppression of our listings I wonder if anyone has been able to bounce back?

I’ve tried Deleting a listing and posting a new one the next day with fresh Pictures and description. I’d still get like 5 clicks after 24hrs then after another day magnet I’m at 40 clicks, but never receive a message….

Another thing is I used to have 30+ Listings
Avg. 12-15 messages a week
Average 800-1200 clicks a week
Listings showed at the top of search

Then it went to 0 messages for week(s)
300 clicks
No listings show up in search for me or anyone

Yesterday I created the account and got an email at 4:05PM saying 'Welcome to Facebook'. In my account I tweaked the privacy settings and setup MFA. That's it. I logged out. I didn't check my email for the rest of the evening.

When I got home from work, I put the Facebook app on my phone, it made me do a video selfie to prove I'm real, so I did. Then told me to wait 24 hours to see if I'm approved.

I sign into my email today to see it was an hour after creating the account, I got an email saying my account has been suspended and I have 180 days to appeal. Then 4 hours later saying my appeal failed (which I never did, since I was unaware anything was wrong), and my account has been permanently disabled.

I don't understand. I didn't even get to use the account, didn't post anything, didn't upload anything, nothing.

Looking through their help page basically says 'too bad, so sad.'
They now have my personal information and I don't even get to use the service.

Is there anyway to appeal this?

Thank you for any help you can offer.

My page is PRIVATE and locked down so I don’t know how they found out this information but someone has been making new accounts to follow me . I block one account and get 5 new accounts messaging me . Every time I block account I get new accounts messaging me.

I don’t wanna delete my account. I just want this person to leave me alone . It’s stressing me out that this stranger knows essentially my entire life and They told me they know my family members names, where I went to school, city I live in , where I work at.

Only my friends can see my private post . I have it set to where no one outside of my friends list can see anything but for some reason this stranger knows everything about me. They even found out about my dream of moving to New York to be a fashion designer and they also came on Reddit trying to dox me and put my private information on here . Every time I post they will link my private Facebook and Instagram accounts on Reddit and etc
This is terrifying and essentially putting not me but also my family and friends in danger

My facebook account I have had since I was a young teenager (15-17 years) was permanently suspended because the instagram account I linked to broke the community guidelines. despite the accounts have nothing in common or anything and are only linked because of that it's all one account and everything on it just gets AXED.

here's the bit that stings the most I haven't used that instagram account in 2 years. I made it for a business that I tried and failed and after 2 months I abandoned it.

then 2 years later out of literally nowhere it was banned saying I broke community guidelines.

I used that facebook account to run two of my business pages for a special needs clinic and that page is just gone with no recovery option.

I bought the meta verified badge thing (1 week trial) and I got in touch with "support". They did not care in the absolute slightest.

is there anything that can help at all?

What is going on with marketplaces ads i was just minding my own business scrolling through marketplace looking at cars and tractors then next and ads of a woman's genitals on display came up.