Sometime overnight on March 6, as I was unwinding from a long day at work (in glorious Miami), I noticed that my Facebook app was freezing. Thinking nothing of it, I thought it must be Facebook going down. The next day, I could not log in. I logged out of the Facebook app. I deleted the app and re-downloaded it on my two phones (one personal, one business). Still I kept encountering this frustrating error: Sorry. Something went wrong. And I’d get this screen on every device, app or mobile website, and not even be able to get to the login page unless I cleared my cache since the beginning of time.
I checked all the websites that tell you whether a website is down for you or for everyone, and it seemed like it was just me. Then I wrote a friend to see if they can log on Facebook. They said yes. Then they said, “Shang we can’t find you”. What do you mean? They sent me a screenshot of the next available profile for my name – someone who lives in Japan. I had another friend look up my Facebook groups and not only was I no longer the admin for the Save My Cents Facebook group, ALL my content that I’d built up in the last 3 years was gone. I tried a few recover my account screens but kept encountering the “sorry, something went wrong” page again and again. There was no evidence on any of the other online digital pages I’d been on that I’d been hacked.
Panicked, I contacted several friends who were Facebook employees. I knew if I contacted Facebook help it’d go nowhere. However, if I personally know people who are employed by Facebook, they can put in a friends and family help ticket. It’s a perk, and I knew to be my only hope. I sent them countless screenshots, links to groups I managed, the photography page I’d spent 10 years building a 2K+ following for (that I didn’t mind as much losing because, well, I don’t run the photography page anymore, but I still would like to sometimes!)
The answers I got back were:
1. My profile was deleted.
2. I must have deleted my profile. (um no… do you think me, working 70 hours during that week, would have the patience to click through the purported multiple screens that double check whether you want to delete your account?)
A fellow friend who is a sub 100er (someone who was one of the first 100 to join Facebook the same day I did) said maybe it was related to a bevy of bugs that we often get on our accounts.
I resigned to the fact that my Facebook account would never be recovered. Thank goodness from my professional photography days, I’d had a habit of constantly backing up my entire photography archive at Zenfolio (my referral code is RVM-A95-GGR to get 10% off you plan), the world’s most reliable photography backup service. But all the little posts, memories, comments, inside jokes, are gone.
I started a new account. I added maybe a hundred friends (if you’re my real life friend I will accept friend requests). Facebook immediately shut me down again, this time for spam. My persistent Facebook friend helped me with that too. So now I’m just slowly telling my friends as I see them to add me back. Thanks to another Facebook loophole that allows anyone to become an admin of a group if the original admin has left, I regained control of the Save My Cents Facebook group account.
Here’s where I still have thoughts.
I highly doubt Facebook truly deletes anyone. When I re-opened my account, I got this screen when I entered my original Facebook email account for verification saying that there was already an account associated with that email. This is fishy
Does Facebook, really, ever delete anything? What if they got subpoenaed? Again, I doubt database entries die just like that.
So Facebook, I still have a list of grievances with you (and Instagram, too):
- I want control back of my photography page again
- I want you to fix the bug associated with @savemycents on Instagram where I am unable to download my account data even though your help article claims that all accounts should be able to do so. Similarly, I fear that one day you will delete me on Instagram, and the 12K+ followers I’ve built in less than a year would also disappear
- I don’t believe Facebook should willy nilly delete accounts. Deactivate maybe. But I do not believe that anyone on earth holds the moral authority to determine what is right and wrong in the world.
- I am continually reminded I am not a customer
But the Facebook banhammer period, as I jokingly call this period, also did some wonders. I didn’t have the itch to be on social media all the time. I was already fed up with the 24/7 political ranting and loved never being exposed to it (on either side of the spectrum). I clearly was bored. And while sadly I wish I could keep in touch with all my 2,200+ friends collected over 15 years, honestly, that is not realistic, and a new era of fewer, closer connections is warranted as I enter into a new stage of life.
As a blogger and business owner, this period reminded me of the importance of owning my .com, my content, and my data. I pay Hostgator $80 and Google $70 a year to maintain my website and email, and these two services have not let me down.
