What Happens When Facebook Bans You

What Happens When Facebook Bans You

Millions of users are active on Facebook daily. Despite all the red flags and data privacy issues, we use it because our friends, family and colleagues also use it. Imagine opening up the Facebook app one day and realizing that Facebook has banned you. As strange as it sounds, it can be scary and confusing at the same time. It’s only wise to ask yourself what will happen since Facebook banned you.


What happens when Facebook bans you

There are so many reasons that could lead to a Facebook ban. Also wondering what happens now that you are banned? What about your updates, images, comments and friends? And what can you do now that you have no way to access your profile?

Let’s find out.

Why Facebook banned you

Facebook often prohibits users from sharing or posting questionable content, hate speech, abuse, fake news, violence, drugs, gun promotion, etc. Facebook can also ban you if someone complains by claiming that you share such content or invading their privacy by posting personal pictures or videos. Creating and promoting fake accounts can also get you banned for good.

The same goes for Messenger. Most people also don’t know that Messenger is not private. Although it offers end-to-end encryption, Facebook uses metadata instead of content to identify suspicious behavior. Posting nude or adult images / videos may prohibit you. Sometimes Facebook will send an alert or warning and remove the content. Other times you are temporarily blocked (24 hours, 7 days or 30 days). It depends on the type of content and past behavior. Repeat offenders are subject to permanent bans.


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This image is used for representation purposes only.

See the Facebook Community Policy for more information on how to get banned from Facebook. Surprisingly, Facebook only made these guidelines public in 2018. Several users who had been banned before didn’t even know what led to the ban or how to avoid the ban hammer.

On the other hand, there are arguments as to why certain types of content should be allowed. Users argued that images or videos promoting breast cancer awareness or publicly feeding your baby should be allowed but are not. Part of the problem is that Facebook is an American business with a global user base and keeping everyone happy can be difficult. Are they doing enough? Not really.

What can you do about the ban

Sadly, not much except one thing we’ll talk about below. Let’s understand the basics first. Facebook sends automated system-generated emails to notify the user of the ban, but often not the reasons that led to it. Several users who have been banned have found the hard way that responding to these emails or contacting Facebook does not yield any results. Frankly, I don’t blame Facebook for this.

Consider this: over 2 billion monthly active users were on Facebook in 2019. In the same year, Facebook deleted over 2 billion fake accounts. It’s completely understandable that Facebook didn’t respond to each of these requests and maybe it needs to use bots to automate the hard work.


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If you are wrong and you know the reason for your ban on crossing a line, I suggest you move on. You can try to contact them, but don’t expect a real or even positive response anytime soon.

Facebook automatically lifts the temporary bans and you will be notified of the number of days or the length of the ban. Wait and make sure you don’t repeat the same mistake.

Now for the solution.

The only option left is to request a review. Enter your email address and submit your identity documents. Note that this may or may not work, and a lot will depend on why your Facebook account was banned. An example of an area where this can work is an identity or a fake or even a duplicate account issue.

What you can’t do while you’re banned

You can no longer access your profile. Even changing IP addresses or locations won’t help. It also means that you can’t post, log in, or do anything else on Facebook. You should find another platform like WhatsApp or Telegram to let everyone in your circle know about the unfortunate event. So no one is wondering why or where you disappeared and how to reach you after Facebook banned you.


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What about business or business pages?

Scary situation. Ask your coworker or someone who is co-admin to post updates to the pages while you are away. The same goes for small business owners and social media managers. Sole administrator of the page? Kiss him goodbye.

What about your Facebook data

Your Facebook account will no longer be synchronized with the applications on your smartphone. This means that you will lose all contacts, event notifications including birthday reminders, and any other information that you had on your phone thanks to the Facebook app. Scary but true.

Are you using Facebook ID to login to this website or application? You can’t do this anymore. I recommend using an email id or something like google where the chances of getting banned are lower. Preferably, use the same email id as your Facebook to access your old account.


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You should be able to use Instagram even if you use the same email id and phone number on both platforms. Indeed, they are separate companies with different policy guidelines, even though Facebook bought the first one. However, if you have used the Facebook app to create and log into your Instagram account directly, you will not be able to access it. You should be able to access Instagram if you create an account first and link it to Facebook later.

What about your profile activity

You cannot access photos, videos and messages that you have posted on the platform. No one else can access these media files either. That is why you should download your Facebook data from time to time and always store a backup in a safe place. Your comments, status updates, and likes will also disappear.

No one can search for you by name, email address or number. You will cease to exist on Facebook.


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Note that messages you sent to other users’ inboxes will still be visible. However, your name will appear in plain text or as a Profile ID (a string of numbers) and not as a clickable link. Without a profile picture, nothing less. A subtle hint that the user who sent these messages is no longer active on Facebook. All likes and comments are also removed.

Facing the ban

There is some kind of finality in the Facebook ban act. There’s not much you can do except move on. I suggest you get used to it. You can also try to create a new profile using a different email id and phone number. I recommend you to be more careful and not to depend too much on a single platform. Remember, life was going well before Facebook came along. So as long as you avoid the Facebook community guidelines, you should be fine.

Then:

Have you created a new profile or recovered your old profile? Click on the link below to learn how to customize the privacy of your profile to protect you and your data at all times.

Last updated August 18, 2020

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