What Happens When Facebook Bans You?

Millions of users are active on Facebook every day. Despite all the red flags and data privacy issues, we use it because our friends, family, and colleagues do too. Imagine that one day you open the Facebook app to realize that Facebook has banned you. While it may sound strange, it can also be frightening and surprising. It’s wise to wonder what will happen since Facebook banned you.

There are many reasons that can lead to a Facebook ban. Also wondering what will happen now that it’s banned? What about your updates, pictures, comments and friends? And now that there is no way to access your profile, what can you do about it?

Let’s find out.

Why Did Facebook Ban You?

Facebook generally bans users for sharing or posting suspicious, hate speech, abusive, fake news, violence, drugs, gun promotion and other content. Facebook may also ban you if someone reports that you are sharing such content or that you are violating their privacy by posting personal pictures or videos. Creating and promoting fake accounts can also get you permanently banned.

The same goes for Messenger. Most people don’t realize that Messenger isn’t private either. Despite offering end-to-end encryption, Facebook uses metadata rather than content to identify suspicious behavior. Posting nude or adult images/videos may get you banned. Sometimes Facebook sends an alert or warning and removes the content. Other times, you will be temporarily blocked (24 hours, 7 days or 30 days). It depends on the type of content and past behavior. Permanent bans apply to repeat offenders.

To learn more about how someone can be banned from Facebook, check out the Facebook Community Guidelines. Surprisingly, Facebook only announced these guidelines in 2018. Few users who were banned before that didn’t even know what caused the ban or how to avoid the ban hammer.

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

What Can You Do About the Ban?

Unfortunately, there isn’t much to it other than something we’ll discuss below. Let’s understand the basics first. Facebook sends automated system-generated emails informing the user of the ban, but usually not the reasons that led to it. Several banned users found the hard way that replying to these emails or contacting Facebook did not yield any results. Frankly, I don’t blame Facebook for this.

Consider this: In 2019, Facebook had over 2 billion monthly active users. In the same year, Facebook removed more than 2 billion fake accounts. It’s understandable that Facebook didn’t respond to each of these requests and had to use bots to automate the grunt work.

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

Facebook automatically lifts temporary bans and you are informed about the number of days or duration of the ban. Just wait and make sure you don’t repeat the same mistake.

Now for the solution.

The only remaining option is to ask for a review. Enter your e-mail address and submit your identity documents. Note that whether it may work or not and a lot will depend on why your Facebook account was banned. An example of where it might work is an identity or fake or even a duplicate account issue.

What You Can’t Do While Banned

You can no longer access your profile. Even changing IP addresses or locations doesn’t help. It also means you can’t post, connect or do anything else you’re used to on Facebook. You should find another platform like WhatsApp or Telegram to let everyone around you know about the unfortunate event. So that no one wonders why or where you disappeared and how Facebook can reach you after banning you.

What about professional pages or business pages?

Terrible situation. Ask a colleague or someone who is a co-administrator to post updates to the pages in your absence. The same goes for small business owners and social media managers. The only admin of the page? Kiss me goodbye.

About Your Facebook Data

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

Are you using your Facebook ID to sign in to this website or app? You can’t do this anymore. I would suggest using an email id or something like Google where there is less chance of getting blocked. Preferably, use the same email id as your Facebook account to access your old account.

You should be able to use Instagram even when using the same email id and phone number on both platforms. This is because they are separate companies with different policy guidelines, even though Facebook bought the first one. However, if you used the Facebook app to create and log in directly to your Instagram account, you will not be able to access that account. You should be able to access Instagram if you first created an account and then linked it to Facebook.

About Your Profile Activity

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

No one can call you based on your name, email address or number. Your presence on Facebook will end.

Note that messages you send to other users’ inboxes will still appear. However, your name will appear as plain text or profile ID (a string of numbers) and not as a clickable link. Without a profile picture, no less. A subtle hint that the user who sent these messages is no longer active on Facebook. All likes and comments are also deleted.

Confront the Ban

There is some certainty in the act of the Facebook ban. There’s not much you can do about it other than move forward. I recommend getting used to it. Alternatively, you can try creating a new profile using a different email id and phone number. I would recommend being more careful and not relying too much on one platform. Remember, life was good before Facebook came along. So as long as you stay away from the Facebook Community Guidelines you should be fine.

Next: Did you create a new profile or get your old profile back? Click on the link below to learn how to customize your profile privacy to protect your data and yourself at all times.