Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Facebook account has been disabled

My Facebook account was disabled today. Here's the flow of events:

1) Joined Facebook a week ago
2) Updated my profile with my previous employers. But only 5 employers could be added - Max
3) emailed the customer support/help people through facebook link, and asked why only 5
4) they explained politely that right now, only 5 is the limit.
5) I email back saying "Hi, I guess that's why you don't have many users who are over 30..."
6) Then they email me back saying that they've disabled my account - reason: my date of birth was incorrect (I had something like Dec 12 1912 as my birthday)

So you be the judge: Is this social networking site acting like big brother and misusing the information you store there?

Here's the actual thread if you are interested:
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Yakov Cherkassky
Date: Aug 14, 2007 12:00 AM
Subject: Fwd: [rt.facebook.com #5972276] Messages Help: work history
To: [Face book friends]

Wow! I can't believe they disabled my account! - I've only been on for a week!

Chris, should I forward to Cory Doctrow? Read the thread below to see why...

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Austin from Facebook comment-info-rt@facebook.com
Date: Aug 13, 2007 10:38 PM
Subject: Messages Help: work history
To: yakov.cherkassky

Hi Yakov,

Knowingly providing false information at the time of registration is a
violation of our terms of use. Your account as been disabled because
you have registered with a fake date of birth.

If you would like to use this profile again, just get back to us with
your real date of birth and we will reactivate the account for you.

Thanks for contacting Facebook,

Austin
Customer Support Representative
Facebook


[yakov.cherkassky - Mon Aug 13 16:44:38 2007]:

Hi, I guess that's why you don't have many users who are over 30...

Too bad

On 8/13/07, Austin from Facebook comment-info-rt@facebook.com wrote:
>
> Hi Yakov,
>
> Sorry for the inconvenience. At this time, each profile only supports
> you last five employers. Please let me know if you have any further
> questions or concerns.
>
> Thanks for contacting Facebook,
>
> Austin
> Customer Support Representative
> Facebook
>
>
>
> [yakov.cherkassky - Sun Aug 12 12:41:48 2007]:
>
> only 5 employers max? WTF?
>
>
>
> Browser: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1.6)
> Gecko/20070725 Firefox/2.0.0.6

Update 9/2007: On a related note - "Why is Facebook banning people" http://thatkathryngirl.typepad.com/that_kathryn_girl/2007/08/why-is-facebook.html

7 comments:

Mojito said...

Hey Yakov,

I think that Austin, Customer Support Rep should not only apologize to you but also give you his job in turn, as obviously he is reading from the manual on "how to handle tough customers!" and he's failing at it! :P
Don't give up!

Julia said...

haha! this is hilarious. Austin is an ass. had no idea Facebook was so "ageist"!!!

Anonymous said...

I was disabled for adding too many friends too. They actually said "please note: "Please note, nudity, drug use, or other
obscene content is not allowed on the website"

I did none of this!!!!!!!

This site is abusing it's power. Someone should bring them down to earth. They are treating people harshly and not giving any explanations as to why.

David
darkhorse_hbs@yahoo.com

Simon said...

i leave fake surnames, fake birthdays , fake postcodes, and emails (if they dont require activation) on every site i have to join. I dont see a need why a site needs to know my personal details.

Miss Natalie said...

really, this whole crackbook thing is a joke. i don't have my DOB listed and I go by Miss Natalie just like my blodder ID.

I've read articles on identity theift and potential employers checking you out online prior to employment - no thanks!

MT said...

The reason why facebook has been signing people out is because of their image of becoming the most trusted social networking site. This is due to the fact that Facebook has turned its way to Corporate Advertising/Marketing. Businesses won't have any confidence if Facebook's users' profiles are misleading. Advertisers only want to target the right (and credible) audience.

As for Yakov's case, I just don't think that being born in 1912 made sense - that's why they probably thought that you're giving out misleading info about yourself.

Basically, Facebook has become a strictly corporate business type of social networking, rather than having the freedom to post whatever you want. People who are with facebook are definitely at risk of online fraud/theft. Beware!!!

- MT

Facebook said...

[[FACEBOOK UNION]]

I’ve heard this idea before. Who thinks there should be some sort of Facebook Union?

Essentially, it’s just like any other type of union. If one of us gets banned unfairly, we all stop using the site. They have to listen to the masses…

Many of us here are highly influential individuals, and we should all agree on the following:
1) Convicted individuals need a way to plead for their innocence and individuals who are not in violation of any rules should have restored accounts.
2) All rules should be stated clearly on the site, and non-damaging first-time violations of rules that are not made clear should be dealt with through a warning.

I’m going to be creating a Gmail account and all who are interested in becoming part of the Facebook Union can email me at facebookunion@gmail.com

All will be valued here.

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