Facebook is known for disabling accounts and not allowing further access to content associated with disabled accounts, without referring to specific incident(s) causing disabling. Behaviors that have been reported to cause Facebook to disable accounts comprise: adding friends too often (despite a feature in Facebook called "Suggestions" that may be used to add people a user knows as friends), browsing Facebook too often, posting too much, and sending too many messages. It is also reported that Facebook does not disclose the limits to behaviors that cause account disabling. ("Facebook Principles." Facebook. and "Product Overview FAQ: Facebook Ad." Facebook)
Facebook members whose accounts have been disabled—some with good reason, some not—are increasingly frustrated with the company’s opaqueness when it comes to trying to figure out what they did wrong. They find that their accounts have been turned off and access to the site and all their data is denied, sometimes without so much as a warning.
What began in 2007 as a trickle of users complaining about deactivated Facebook accounts has turned into a "much larger" group of people posting complaints at Satisfaction Unlimited's site, noted Thor Muller, the site's CEO and founder. "What was alarming to some extent ... was that some of those people were disabled without warning, without being told what they did wrong and were given no clear path to resolve the issue," Muller said. Here's the problem according to Muller:
"Users that are algorithmically flagged are given the runaround when trying to get even basic information about their situation. The lucky ones get their accounts back after a disconcerting and unknown period–but many never do. Considering that Facebook encourages people to revolve their lives around their accounts (it’s an email replacement! the only social graph you’ll ever need!) it is an incredibly traumatic event for each and every one of these people. People are freaking out because they can’t even login to download–let alone delete–the years of data they’ve accumulated."
If Facebook is truly a social utility though, should they be shutting down accounts so frequently? Have you ever had an email address disabled? Anybody that decides to send out spam from their server typically has little issues because the hosts don’t care how you are using your servers for the most part as long as you aren’t affecting other customers. The bottom line is that when you get an email, sign up for hosting, or get any other type of service you can use it how you’d like and rarely are accounts shut down except for those that have blatantly disrupted the service.
I think Facebook should address this problem with specific answers for restrictions and shutdowns. For example, if you start adding a ton of friends when you register for the site, you’ll immediately get a warning that you are adding too many friends and that your account could be disabled. Often times users don’t pay attention to the warnings and their accounts are soon unusable.
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