Can you get banned from Facebook forever? The answer is most certainly “yes.”
Jason Birch found this out the hard way. The social media giant won’t tell him why he’s permanently banished, but Birch thinks he knows where he went wrong. He says he’s learned from his “little” mistake and would like Facebook to lift the ban and accept his apology. And he’s not prepared to take no for an answer.
But is there any way back into the Facebook community after you’ve been banned?
We know from the plethora of requests for help that Consumer Rescue receives each week about locked accounts that Facebook is more willing than ever to ban users who don’t follow their rules.
These former Facebookers who contact our team all want the same thing: to reclaim their accounts and return to the popular virtual community. Unfortunately for them, this goal may be impossible. So it’s crucial that users acquaint themselves with Facebook’s community standards — before they end up on the outside looking in. Because, as we know, no one is immune to a Facebook banishment — not even a former President of the United States.
Fact: Facebook Messenger is not private.
Jason says that his unexpected Facebook troubles began one evening when he was using Facebook Messenger.
“After a concert, I logged onto Facebook and was talking to a friend,” Jason recalled. “I was on my laptop, and I accidentally sent a partial nude photo. A few minutes later, I received an alert that Facebook blocked me.”
From that moment last summer, Jason has been on an aggressive crusade to get his Facebook account reactivated.
He has sent numerous emails to the Facebook team asking, then begging, them to forgive him and reactivate his account. He insists that uploading the “partial nude” was a mistake and he thought Facebook Messenger was private.
FYI: No, Facebook Messenger isn’t private. Nothing on Facebook is private.
“I sent this photo through a private Facebook message. I did not post it on Facebook,” Jason pleaded. “The Facebook scanner detected it was inappropriate. I was banned from Facebook immediately. Please, I just want my account back.”
The Facebook Team: “You’re ineligible to use Facebook.”
Throughout the next several months, Jason continued to send a steady stream of emails to the Facebook team.
I don’t use Facebook for porn. All I use it for is to keep in contact with friends and family. I’ve had this account since my teen years and want to get all my photos and memories back. I also have several family members that I can only get in contact with through Facebook. This has been such a stressful five months. It was an accident, and it won’t happen again. I never meant to send that photo. I miss my family and friends on Facebook. Please unblock my account.
The Facebook Team did not respond in the way Jason hoped.
Although initially, Jason’s paper trail shows what appears to be auto-generated responses to his pleas, Facebook soon sent a definitive answer.
Hi, Jason,
We’ve determined that you are ineligible to use Facebook. To learn more about Facebook’s policies, please review the Facebook Statement of Rights and Responsibilities.
Unfortunately, for safety and security reasons, we can’t provide additional information as to why your account was disabled. We appreciate your understanding, as this decision is final. (Facebook team)
The Facebook team
If your Facebook account is disabled, there is no appeal process
But Jason was anything but “understanding” about this decision.
What kind of %#*& customer service is this that it takes over five months to even try to get ahold of a real human being to help with a problem!!!!
This is horrible.
Not knowing where else to turn, he sent his request for help to our advocacy team.
When I received Jason’s request for help, I reviewed his giant paper trail. Unfortunately, I knew that his case was likely one that we could not successfully advocate.
Although we receive many requests for help concerning banned Facebook accounts, our track record for resolving these cases is zero.
In fact, Facebook, like other giant companies such as Amazon and eBay, typically ignores these types of inquiries from our team.
It would seem that after Facebook takes the drastic step of making a user’s account disabled, there is little to no appeal process.
Fact: You aren’t a customer of Facebook.
And the unique nature of Facebook makes this type of case impossible to mediate.
- Facebook is a free service. Users are not customers. And although Jason was outraged by the “terrible customer service” he received from Facebook, he shouldn’t have been. Facebook provides an online social community free of charge to the user. The Facebook team is not a “customer service team,” and users should not expect the type of personalized attention a complaint would receive from a company of which they are actually paying customers.
- When you sign up with Facebook, you agree to its terms and conditions. If you violate any of those terms, you can get banned — with no clear-cut methods of appealing the decision.
- Facebook doesn’t owe you an account. There are no current laws that require Facebook to allow anyone to participate.
There is very little on which our team could base a mediation attempt over a banned Facebook account. And unfortunately, by Jason’s own admission, he had violated one of Facebook’s terms and conditions — one that could lead to an account being disabled.
But I sent Jason’s case over to the Facebook team and asked them if they could review it. Based on his lengthy paper trail, it was clear that this banishment was consuming his time and attention. I thought if Facebook could give him a response that left no room for interpretation — that he was, in fact, banned forever — he might be able to move on without the social media giant.
As I expected, several weeks went by, and all I received from the Facebook team was an assurance that they would get back to me soon.
“Am I really banned from Facebook forever?“
In the meantime, having not read my article about the best way to approach a consumer problem, Jason’s self-advocacy mission went off the rails. He bombarded Facebook with more requests to have the ban lifted. Inexplicably, he even sent the “partial nude” photo he thought got him banned back to Facebook to tell the team he learned a lesson.
Dec 20: I am rather upset that Facebook disabled my account for this long for an accidental partial nude photo! I just talked to one of my friends and she said she had received [frontal nudity pictures] through Facebook and nothing happened to the other person’s account!! So why on earth did Facebook disable mine, for one, an artistic photo, and two an accidental click/upload on it?!
Dec 25: Can someone unlock my account? It’s Christmas. Facebook has punished me for far too long.
Dec 28: Please someone, how long until I get my account back?
Jan 2: Well, happy new year. Can someone on the Facebook team help me get my account back, please? All this over an accidental photo. It’s rather upsetting.
Jan 6: Why are you guys refusing to help me?! I feel like I’m being discriminated against as a gay man who made a mistake!
Then Jason sent additional letters to Mark Zuckerberg and other executives at Facebook. Not surprisingly, he didn’t receive a response to those messages.
Facebook: “Your account is permanently disabled.”
Finally, Jason did receive a crystal clear message from a first-name-only Facebook team member. “Maxie” sent what should have provided the closure Jason needed — his Facebook ban is permanent.
Your account has been permanently disabled for not following the Facebook Community Standards.
Unfortunately, we won’t be able to reactivate [your Facebook account] for any reason.
This will be our last email regarding your account. For more information about our policies, please review the Facebook Community Standards.
The Facebook team
However, Jason still wasn’t willing to give up. When I suggested to Jason that it was time to let this battle go and forget about his disabled Facebook account, he told me he would not give up — ever.
He insists that he’s not going to stop trying to get his Facebook life back.
8 ways to get banned from Facebook
Facebook’s Community Standards page is where users can learn how to stay a Facebook member in good standing.
Beyond the obvious ways to get banned from Facebook, there are a variety of more subtle things that we know can end in the disabling of a user account:
- Using a Fake name: Although it’s not uncommon to see Facebook accounts in nicknames or self-created monikers, this is something that can get an account banned. Using a name other than the name you use in your “everyday life” is a violation of Facebook’s terms and conditions. And while it’s not likely that Facebook will banish a user for using a “Rated-G” name other than their legal one, it’s important to keep in mind if someone reports you for some other violation and it’s clear that you’re not using your own name, that will give the social media giant another reason to expel you.
- Creating multiple Facebook accounts: If you create more than one Facebook account, you might suddenly find yourself with zero. Facebook allows just one account per person. (Note: Users may have a personal Facebook account and a Facebook page which is usually associated with the user’s business.). November 2023 Update: Recently Facebook has made a feature available to its users that will allow you to make an anonymous username. However, that new username must be tied to your actual account so that Facebook knows your true identity.
- “Friending” too many people in a short period: Facebook is always scanning for fake accounts. If your account mimics the patterns of a fake account, you could get banned right along with the phony ones. Friending large numbers of people in a short period can end with your account being shut down. Keep in mind that Facebook’s terms and conditions note that you should only friend people you “know personally and trust.” Note: If you want to regularly receive someone’s Facebook posts in your regular feed (like a well-known public figure) you should use the “follow” feature rather than requesting to be friends.
- Liking too many things in quick succession: Fake accounts often click on many things quickly and unnaturally. If you “like” tons of posts at a rapid pace, the Facebook algorithm may assume you are a computer bot and disable your account. Typically, a user will receive a warning and/or a temporary pause in their ability to click the like button before their account is formally banned.
- Posting spammy-type posts: No one likes spam in their newsfeed. If you’re posting it, you’re at risk of having your account flagged.
- Posting fake news/ untrue information: We all have friends who repost alerts and memes that contain urban legends or completely untrue information. This behavior can also lead to a Facebook account getting disabled. All Facebook users should fact-check before resharing any posts.
- Posting offensive photos or memes: Remember, this also includes posting things through Facebook Messenger. As we’ve seen in this case, the same rules that apply to your public Facebook page apply to anything you send via messenger as well. Facebook monitors it all.
- Violating the intellectual property rights of others: In a recent update to the community standards of Facebook, the company says that all users must be careful not to violate the intellectual property rights of others. That means making sure that you have permission to share whatever content you post and give attribution to the creator of the content. If you post videos to Facebook, make certain that you are legally allowed to broadcast any music that is attached to the video. If you post articles, memes, or reposts, be sure to give credit to the author, or you could find yourself in Facebook jail or even in legal trouble.
How to get your disabled Facebook account back
Fact: There is no law or regulation that requires Facebook to provide anyone with an account. If Meta determines that you’ve violated its terms and conditions and your account gets disabled, you will also likely get banned from Instagram and Whatsapp as well.
But there are a few steps you can try that may lead to you being welcomed back onto those social media platforms.
Note: This guidance doesn’t apply to accounts that have been banned by Facebook because of actual violations of its policies. If you have violated Meta’s community rules, you’ll won’t be getting your account back any time soon.
However, we have seen an increased volume of requests for help from bewildered former Facebook users who say that they’ve reviewed all the guidelines and are confident that they haven’t violated any rules. It appears that an AI algorithm may be falsely banning some people from Facebook.
Here’s what to do if you’ve found your Facebook account disabled:
Carefully review the terms and conditions of Use
Before you begin a battle to get your Facebook account back, you must review the terms and conditions of the company (community guidelines). You’ll want to ensure that you aren’t violating any rules. If you do manage to get a manual (human reviewer) to look at your appeal, you will want to make it clear that you understand the problem and how you intend to correct it. (For example, if you’ve been attempting to friend tons of strangers or if you’ve been instant messaging people you don’t really know).
Report a hacked Facebook account
Many of the people who contact us believe that the Facebook ban is the result of someone hacking into their account and posting and doing things that violate Meta’s policies. Here is the Facebook form to use if you believe a hacker has taken over your account. This form can be used without signing into Facebook.
Also, remember, if someone has hacked your account and changed the email address associated with your account, you can reverse this change. Facebook always emails users when the primary email address on an account is altered. That email provides a link that will restore your account. You must change your password once your account is returned to you. Note: Always review the address field of any email you’ve received and make sure it is coming from Facebook before clicking on any links inside.
Make an appeal to Facebook about your disabled account
The initial banning of a Facebook account is typically done automatically (not by a human reviewer). If you believe that your account was disabled in error, there should be a link in the email alerting you of the banishment. You can make your initial appeal through that page.
Escalate your complaint
Because we receive so many requests for help about banned Facebook accounts, our researcher, Meera, has spent a great deal of time searching for someone at Facebook who will respond to the complaints we receive about closed social media accounts. You can contact Meera directly, and she will provide you with the latest executive contact we have found to be (sometimes) helpful for users who have had their Facebook accounts banned by mistake.
Some former Facebook users who contact us ask if they can file a class action lawsuit or hire a lawyer to get their accounts back. The answer is not unless you want to waste time and money on something you cannot win. Meta doesn’t owe anyone a free account on their social platforms — but an attorney might gladly take your cash to give the case a try … if you’re willing to pay.
Remember to keep in mind what Facebook is and what it isn’t
- Facebook is not a photo storage service.
Don’t rely on Facebook to store your memories — it isn’t Shutterfly! Facebook makes no guarantees that it is safely storing your photos on its site. And if you should find your account disabled, as Birch and others have, you won’t be able to get your photos back. Without fail, the consumers who have contacted us about banned Facebook accounts are most disturbed by the loss of their pictures. So you can avoid finding yourself in this situation, make sure that you’ve backed up your photos outside of the Facebook platform. - Facebook is not your Rolodex.
Don’t rely on Facebook to store your personal contacts. Birch, like others, complained that he lost touch with friends and family after Facebook disabled his account. Make sure to keep the contact information of treasured friends and family stored offline. Having no way outside of a virtual community to reach a valued “friend” is always a mistake. - Facebook is not Amazon. Be careful shopping there.
Many consumers contact our team after ordering products from an ad they’ve seen on Facebook or when a Marketplace transaction has gone wrong. Shopping on Facebook is not the same as shopping on Amazon or Walmart. Keep in mind, the lack of customer service provided by Facebook should you decide to go shopping there. You’ll want to research the merchant and ensure it’s reputable before handing over your credit card. And NEVER use Zelle to send money to a stranger on Facebook Marketplace. Remember, Zelle is only meant to send cash to people you know personally. Unfortunately, based on the complaints hitting our helpline, the Facebook Marketplace has become a prime hunting ground for scammers who identify Zelle as their preferred payment method. - The Consumer Rescue team can’t get your Facebook account back.
If you want to remain a member of the Facebook community, it’s best to acquaint yourself with all the rules outlined by the social media giant. Because once Facebook has disabled your account for violating any of those rules, not even the Consumer Rescue team can get it back.
Remember, companies can ban you at will — including airlines, social media, retail establishments, investment platforms like Robinhood and more…. so make sure you understand the terms of use so you don’t run afoul. (Michelle Couch-Friedman, Consumer Rescue)
Good advice, Danielle! 🙂
What if you didn’t do what they say you did to get banned? And I mean in absolutely no way, shape, or form did you violate ANY Community Standards period. Yet FB said you did, and you can’t get a real human to review the problem? We appealed. They denied the appeal. Now they have sent a ban on our business page. They said it was for “child sexual exploitation”. The last thing we posted on our business page was a help wanted ad for people to put up Christmas lights (that’s what we do in our business). On the personal page they did the same thing and gave the same reason. The last thing posted on there was hiking photos from the Smokey Mtns. We are pulling our hair out here trying to get this resolved!!!
Unfortunately, it does appear from the hundreds and hundreds of requests for help we receive from former Facebook users, that some of these people have been banned in error. Most of the appeals seems to be “reviewed” by AI bots. Our team would be happy to review the details of your case if you would like (this is a free service). You can submit your case here: https://consumerrescue.org/gethelp/.
This happened to me after my account was hacked. I don’t post memes and I certainly didn’t do anything to get myself banned. I have no idea what the hackers did with my account but I do know that I’ve been permanently banned for someone else’s actions. 🙁
Meeeee too , and I run two business smh it’s a shame but if I can’t depend on Facebook and IG , I’ll see what TikTok and YouTube are doing because this is crazy!
Same, but not even my fb account but my insta.
It just happened to me too, less than 24 hours after receiving a mail from Facebook in which I was notified of the suspension of my account for an unspecified violation of community standards. I later found out that my Instagram account was also suspended, although I did not receive any formal warning whatsoever. I believe my account was hacked. On October 28th I had received another email from Facebook telling me that someone may have logged into my account and that I would have to answer a few questions and change my password at the next login. So I did and also checked my Facebook wall to see if there were any new posts that I didn’t recognize but found nothing suspicious. For security reasons, all my accounts are protected by Two-Factor Authentication (2FA), but in the last few months I’ve realized (on Amazon and Twitter) that even that doesn’t guarantee total protection from breaches.
When my account was awaiting the final review, I tried to at least retrieve my information, but when I pressed the button to download the file created by Facebook I got instead a rather alarming message: “Your account is subject to more restrictions. No one else can see your post. We do not allow publication and the dissemination of content that eroticizes minors”. I never did that, obviously. In fact the last content I personally published on Facebook dates back to a month ago and was about the risk of closure of the Italian news agency “Redattore sociale”. Since then on Facebook I have only put a few likes and posted some short comments, especially about soccer content. Nothing that can justify the suspension or, worse, the closure of my account. On Instagram the last photo posted was taken in Amsterdam and dates back to the first days of September. It showed a house overlooking one of the many canals of the Dutch capital. No minors to be seen anywhere as in all my other pics.
In the 15+ years of my presence on Facebook, as well as on Instagram, I have never ever posted content that is offensive, discriminatory, racist, pornographic and, much less, that eroticizes minors. Being a journalist, I am perfectly aware of the rules that must be followed in communication, both online and offline. However Facebook indicted, prosecuted and convicted me in less than 24 hours for a crime I don’t even know about and all the defense I was allowed to was uploading my passport to prove my identity. I think it is fair to say that the whole process is flawed and that we should worry a lot more about these big unregulated corporations controlling most of the media.
While I understand this ban (though I don’t think it should have been permanent) Facebook does take things wildly out of context and it seems to only be getting worse, and “appeals” go back to the same AI that tagged the community violation.
For example, I got tagged and put in 24 hr FB jail for “Violence and threats” when I responded to a very good friend who announced they were movie out of town that I was going to “Kidnap you for drinks before you go.” I have a friend who was put in FB jail for posting a very normal picture of her dog which just said it “went against community standards” A pic got removed from a group I Admin as “nudity” and the member put in FB jail, and the only notable bare skin was a man’s bald head (maybe the AI thought it was a breast?)
I know it is a daunting task to actually review “disagreements” so no one ever thinks they are in the wrong, but not being able to have a quick human interaction is deeply frustrating. We aren’t FB customers, but in the end we are its product and punishing users who have been tagged incorrectly by the AI still damages it as an entity.
Yeah. I’m kinda pissed at Facebook as well.. Got permbanned without warning a couple of weeks ago. Still don’t know why. All I got on the facebook page was “You’re permbanned for violating community rules by posts on instagram that’s linked to facebook”.
I don’t even use my Instagram and haven’t posted on it for over a year. And those posts was regular “family dinner blah blah”, nice weather and so on. Really boring actually.
So my only idea on what could be the reason is that my account got hacked or something. But I don’t know and I get no information about it at all. I must admit I don’t really care much, feels kinda liberating without facebook. I realise how much time it consumes for pure crap you scroll through now that I can compare it to being without it, and I would actually give everyone else the advice to remove their account as well. It’s not worth it.
I do miss all my contacts and messenger though. Only because it’s my only means of contacting a lot of them and whit a list of nearly 800 people I feel I’ve lost a bunch of really nice discussions.
The thing that annoys me the most about this isn’t really the ban, it’s the way it happens. No warning, no explaining, nothing. And no real way of contacting to get any more information.
And yes. We’re customers. The use of the service isn’t free. We pay with our private information. Facebook live on users information and selling it to companys for ads and more. Just because we don’t pay in real cash doesn’t mean we’re not customers. We pay more in a way. If we payed cash and our information stayed private and protected from other companies it would actually be a lot better service.
So anyway. I’m pissed. Not at losing my account but the terrible way it’s handled by facebook and meta.
Yeah I got permanently banned from Facebook too and I tried to find out why but all I get is I violated community standards but the month before my account got hacked and so I disabled it and then by the time I enabled it it was over 30 days. So my 11 years of information was gone so I resigned up and that’s when Facebook permanently banned me and I can’t get a reason why out of them. And I don’t miss Facebook so much but messenger. I had a lot of international friends. The lack of being able to appeal it to a person that you can talk to that can just look at the information and not get these. You been banned for life is annoying but in some way it’s good to be banned from facebook. It was a total waste of time.
Jonah, you do no need Facebook messenger to keep in touch with international friends. There are plenty of messenger apps / platforms available. Viber, Telegram to name a few. They are free and allow you to send not only messages, but photos and videos.
Good luck!
Yeah. My account got perm banned at the beginning of the year. No warnings or anything. Just logged on and was banned.
The reason? I had violated their community rules by posts on a linked Instagram.
The thing is, I had an Instagram account but I never post anything on it. I use it to follow my relatives and just put a like on some of their posts. I login on it like once a month.
I have no idea what I am supposed to have posted. Theirs no way to contact Facebook to know. I can’t ask Instagram either, my account their isn’t banned, it got instant deleted.
The thing that bothers me is the no explaining and no warning. I have no clue why or what was behind this. If something was posted my instant account must have been hacked or something, but you’d think a company as meta would see that it in that case used some totally new ip address or posted from anpther country/city whatever.
It just make me mad how they can do it just like that. I’m not really missing my fb, actually felt better since I got away from it (and kinda hope everyone would just leave it), but I miss my contacts and messenger.
Most of all though, it really irritates me how they can do it in such a manner and have no way for me to get any answers to why/how at all. It annoys me that a company that have that kind of next-to-none support can have any users.
I LITERALLY did none of those things, nor was I hacked, and I operate a major community page, and yet I got banned. TEN YEARS a member, and for naught but mere usage of the platform.
Why? From what I can surmise, B/c a page-owner deleted two of my comments about electric car ROI & redundancy features (Motor Trend … couldn’t reach the link ever again…) and I re-commented several times on “Names for Punk Bands.”
Yup, that’s all it takes to lose a FB acct now. Their algorithms are horrid & over reaching.
I’ll be migrating my community page to a more stable & independent platform and looking into indep. social venues like Mastadon.
I got banned and I don’t care. I was deleting the bs account anyway, Facebook s#cks. I deliberately wanted to get banned and I did. 😆
I have no clue as to why I was permanently banned from Facebook. I never posted anything on Facebook or communicated with anyone on that platform. Not once. The only thing I did on Facebook was to join two groups whose subject matter was a brand of teardrop trailer that I happen to own. This was a useful source of information for me. Then one day I discovered I was permanently banned. I can only assume my account was hacked or there was a complete breakdown in the AI software Facebook uses to monitor users. There is no one to appeal to or communicate with about this. It is Kafkaesque.
I got banned for stating the side effects of the vaccine. Real nice of them huh? I don’t really care because everything you put on FB is used to sell you crap anyway.
I connect to my friends but if you do a lot of posting you could get ban, I like to store videos and pictures but again its not for that stuff
get like a account warning then it goes away
face it… on fb you are the product not the customer.
If it’s free you aren’t a customer.
They don’t care wit about individuals.
They sell numbers to advertisers.
We are like the pigs saying to each other it’s nice the farmer gives us this barn to sleep in and all that free food too
well thay sell fake goods and its a world red light area for rent
To everyone that wastes advertising dollars on Facebook and meta… I tried to open a Facebook account and while opening it I was told I violated its terms and was banned. I followed the instructions, its automated garbage decided it was going to reject me for no reason. It kept saying that I violated its terms even though I didn’t do anything but try to open an account. I couldn’t have violated its terms because I hadn’t opened the account yet. Use Twitter / X. Facebook is total garbage.
Facebook doesn’t like fake accounts? They literally have the option to create an additional profile using whatever name you want.
https://www.facebook.com/help/5637701596308695/?helpref=faq_content&_rdc=1&_rdr
You can create additional Facebook profiles from your main profile. You’ll create a profile name and @username for each profile:
These names don’t have to match the name you use in everyday life, but they must follow our Community Standards and policies for additional profiles.
The @username is unique and will appear on the additional profile.
Yes, that is a new Facebook feature, but the masked identity must be tied to your actual Facebook profile. Facebook doesn’t allow users to independently create false/anonymous profiles.
I have a former “friend” who thought it proper to harass me on FB. Hell, he harassed EVERYBODY on Facebook. I believe he got several bans. But he’s still on there, presumably by using different emails and creating new accounts. Jason may never get access to his old photos, but he should still be able to create a new account. BTW- there are dozens of Jason Birch’s on Facebook and I’m assuming he’s back on there now too.
I have been blocked on facebook merely for having criticized Israel. Nothing crude or offensive or aggressive… Just plain criticism. There is a hidden policy on facebook: You cannot criticize Israel. You cannot defend the rights and human rights of Palestinians.
Banned since end of June 2024. I am not sure why other than I posted a picture of my daughter who was going to be selling her goat at a local fair. I know TONS of other folks who shared the same of their kids and they still have accounts. I was told by FB that I got an email stating why my account was banned for six months but I did not receive an email. It also said something about looking at my Instagram account to see what standards were violated by I could not find anything. I still have an Instagram acct. I emailed and You Tubed a bunch of different ways to try to get a response and nothing. It is very irritating… I have a lot of years of business and photos on there.
ive been locked from facebook since 1st nov