Facebook Fiasco
I’m sure if you followed my Pharmacy Follies page on Facebook, you know it’s off line. Apparently, I got suspended from Facebook for some unknown reason. Seriously. I have no idea as to why they suspended my account. I never got any sort of warnings. At most, I would get those music copyright warnings whenever I’d upload a video and it had a song playing in the background but are those really enough to suspend an account? The worst part is not only did it suspend my personal FB profile that I had for 12 years, it also suspended by Instagram account which only had hair and nail pics on there.
So you get the option to fight it out except there’s one little problem. I do NOT use my real name online. Y’all gotta remember. I’m old as shit. I started using the internet when Netscape and AOL and shit was the way you accessed the internet and if you’re old enough to remember those days, there was ONE thing that was CONSTANTLY drilled into your head: do NOT use your real name online to keep yourself safe. So that’s what I did. I used the same pseudonym across the board, which was pretty much dog boards because I live such an exciting life, that everybody and they mama know me by that name. Needless to say, when Facebook came out, it only made sense for me to sign up with the name that everyone knew me by and it was NEVER an issue. Until now.
For me, personally, I don’t use a pseudonym for nefarious reasons. I do so in order to prevent people who I don’t want to find me from finding me. This is includes crazies I’ve encountered in life and employees and customers within the company I’m employed in. My personal life is just that, personal. I’d like to keep it that way. Now, there are a lot of serious reasons why people may use pseudonyms. Victims of abuse. Gay folk who haven’t come out. Then you have transgendered folks who go by their new name but haven’t legally changed things over yet.
Well, it turns out that using a false name is a violation of the TOS of Facebook and in order to verify my Facebook account, they want my government ID. I have a HUGE problem with that. Not only because I use a pseudonym but I don’t feel comfortable uploading ID to a social media account where only God knows what can happen with that information. I’ve NEVER had any other entity require an ID to be uploaded to their website. Not my banking website, not my credit card websites, not my insurances websites and I sure as hell didn’t need to upload my ID when I dropped crazy money on jewelry to ensure it’s really me purchasing such an expensive bauble. So why does Facebook feel they’re deserving of such information? Yeah, I get it’s their entity and they can do what they wish but have they ever taken into account as to WHY some folks aren’t comfortable with using their real names online?
Because my need to socialize and keep in touch with my friends and family is a little greater than my need for privacy, I decided to play the game and upload my ID. It was rejected because the information doesn’t match. The crazy part is for an entity as big as Facebook, their support SUCKS. There’s literally NO WAY to reach out to someone when your account is suspended because you’re NOT given the option to access ANYTHING on Facebook due to a suspended account. I literally had to do some dig deeping just to find email accounts to various Facebook departments in order to explain my situation: My account is suspended, I’m trying to fight it but because my ID does not match the name on the account, I can’t proceed any further. NO response whatsoever. I even tried reaching out on Twitter. Not even an automated response. So I had a friend take my ID and actually do a little magic by putting my false name on it. I submitted that and I’ll be damned, it worked enough to fool the AI to let me disagree with the decision to have only God knows who look over my account to see if I can get it reinstated.
So why in the hell did I get this email yesterday??!
It’s going on a week since I’ve disagreed with the decision and I’ve yet to hear anything and I get this. Suffice to say, I will probably lose my account. I’m just shocked at how horrible their support is. I’m saddened to lose 12 years of memories and I really enjoyed running Pharmacy Follies. Yeah, I said I can keep it going on here and I even contemplated on taking it to Twitter as well but I’m also at the point where I feel it’s run it’s course. I mean, if I get a lot of people wanting me to keep it going, I’ll entertain the masses and keep giving the ol’ razzle dazzle. It just pissed me off that Facebook did me like this without any sort of warning, explanation and they make it damn near impossible to make things right.
And on that note, am I the only one who experienced this nonsense? Anyone wanna share their experience?