To add to what you’ve written here: I also work for a large company–not, precisely, social media, but we own a few (along with, apparently, the entire global music industry)–and some of what you’ve said is certainly true, while other aspects are fairly problematic.
I’ve witnessed my employer issue widespread account locks (on various platforms) for security reasons, tied to all manner of possible cause. Social engineering, fraud, etc etc. We’ve also, on a far more individual basis, locked accounts due to suspicious activity.
We weren’t always correct in doing so.
None of these bans were irreversible. None of these bans, if they were contested, were handled with “just rejoin with a new account at the next window.” They were investigated fully.
If we were found to be in error for issuing the account lock, we’d get that promptly unlocked for the customer.
Equally, if accounts received locks, we knew precisely why we were doing so (and so did the account owners; they’d receive an email with a list of fully viable actions to take in the event of their accounts getting locked).
Some were guilty of wrongdoings.
By and large, our client base has confidence that–as a company–we’ll handle the matter with integrity. We have multiple articles regarding our policies that are, if I may say so, very clear on matters of what’s allowed, what might result in a locked account, etc.
Flight Rising–evidenced by the number of people panicking and reblogging rumors of bans–over 80 individual reblogs of a post on my blog within two hours, for the record, shows me one thing: the userbase, by and large, isn’t clear on the methods the admin use to assess instances of possible cheating, botting, etc. They’re also lacking in confidence regarding whether or not such a thing will be handled fairly, should they be innocent of such.
That’s a problem, and something I feel the admin of FR really need to address.
blakekathryn
titsay
annaxmalina
areudirty
2087
jbbartram-illu
kianamaiart
tangentwithtanner
