From Newsgroup: nz.general

This item <https://www.1news.co.nz/2025/08/09/quite-stressful-kiwis-stung-by-wrongful-facebook-and-instagram-bans/>
from yesterdayrCOs news reports on people who have had their accounts on Instagram or Facebook (both owned by parent company Meta) suspended or
banned for unknown reasons.

This sort of thing has been happening, right across social media
platforms, since the beginning. Maybe itrCOs happening more now. The
processes at these companies are highly automated, and appeals against
such suspension/termination decisions rarely seem to be successful.
They almost never give any details about which exactly of their terms
and conditions have been violated, so you end up groping in the dark
when trying to defend yourself.

About the only thing that does work is appealing to the media. All too
often, within 24-48 hours of undesirable publicity getting out,
decisions which were previously delivered as rCLfinalrCY somehow manage to
earn a retraction, or at least another review.

One thing I find sardonically funny is one suffering user is quoted as
saying rCLthey need a better customer support systemrCY. Remember, if you
are not paying for the service, then you are not the customer: you are
the product.
--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: nz.general

Follow-ups trimmed to comp.misc

In comp.misc Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> wrote:

This item <https://www.1news.co.nz/2025/08/09/quite-stressful-kiwis-stung-by-wrongful-facebook-and-instagram-bans/>
from yesterdayrCOs news reports on people who have had their accounts on Instagram or Facebook (both owned by parent company Meta) suspended or
banned for unknown reasons.

<snip>

Those lucky kiwis! If Facebook wants to ban my account,
please do!

I was "encouraged" to signup for Facebook by multiple people
at work, so I made them happy.

I left that company a few years ago so I tried deleting my ID
without luck. I ended up posted something like "I will never
use Facebook going forward".

So Facebook, please ban me or tell me how I can get banned :)
--
[t]csh(1) - "An elegant shell, for a more... civilized age."
- Paraphrasing Star Wars
--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: nz.general

On Sun, 10 Aug 2025 01:45:41 -0000 (UTC), I wrote:

This item ... reports on people who have had their accounts on
Instagram or Facebook (both owned by parent company Meta) suspended
or banned for unknown reasons.

The saga continues, with more account blocks that seem just as
arbitrary as those that have gone before <https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/kiwi-users-face-facebook-instagram-bans-in-metas-ai-enforcement-crackdown/DSZB2Q7IB5AONCLKIUWYOIKUGM/>.

One thing I find sardonically funny is one suffering user is quoted
as saying rCLthey need a better customer support systemrCY. Remember, if
you are not paying for the service, then you are not the customer:
you are the product.

I have to amend that. A couple of the users mentioned in the latest
article were in fact paying money for their accounts. But it seems
their service was no better than that meted out to non-paying users.

However, itrCOs clear the social media sites are trying to offer a
service that is as profitable for themselves as possible. That means
keeping costs down to a minimum. Which means heavy use of automatic
systems, with as little human involvement as possible. So not only are
the bans automatic, but even the appeals lodged by users against those
bans are also handled automatically for the most part.

Human intervention is being reserved only for the most important
cases. And the most important cases are the ones that are likely to
cause the most PR damage to the company.
--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2