Last week I experienced every social media manager’s worst nightmare: my facebook got hacked. Not just hacked, but the person linked my facebook account to an instagram account that went against terms of service, so my whole facebook account got banned. Booted. Disappeared. Unalived.
Superb.
Thus far it’s been entirely irretrievable despite my best efforts. Ever tried contacting Facebook/Meta? BEST OF LUCK. It’s infuriating. I can’t even appeal it online because it won’t allow me to go past the point of logging in. So now it’s just… gone.
Which at first made me mad. Now it’s just become incredibly sad. That account had 15 years of pictures and videos (most of which I don’t have saved anywhere else), and posts and comments, and connections and friends, and groups and community. Just… poof. All gone. Every day I think of something else I’ll probably never get back and it’s upsetting all over again. Honestly it even feels like a blow to my reputation in general, because there was just so much history there and so many connections… now if someone looks me up there’s just nothing much to find. That’s something I can’t back.
Not to even mention the issues it’s caused with my work. I manage or run several business pages, some of which were also impacted. After a few days of getting absolutely nowhere I gave up and created a new facebook account, so I could at least reconnect the business pages and do my job while I tried to retrieve my original account. But now it seems like that new account might just be my only account.
It’s weird to feel like you’re in mourning over something as seemingly silly as a facebook account, but here we are. Turns out it was more important than I thought.
I briefly considered just taking that as my cue to exit facebook, and only use the new account to access the business pages I need and the Patreon group. But the truth is, I do actually need it in my line of work, and I do really enjoy it. The groups in particular. So I’m rebuilding, slowly but surely, trying to find all my old groups and friends. Except I’m scared to send out friend requests because the first time I tried, several people reported the new account as fraud. Also a lot of groups won’t let me join because my account is too new. It’s beyond frustrating.
So if you’re looking for me on facebook and it appears that I have gone POOF… I did indeed go poof, and teleport to an entirely new location. You can find me here.
breedrideevent.com 
Well, damn… I am SO sorry! That is HORRIBLE and sad.
I’ve heard from others that contacting Meta does nothing, too. I keep getting automatically-generated emails from Meta with a code to reset my password, so someone/some bot is trying to get in. There’s a button to tell Meta you didn’t request a password reset so I click that every time… but it keeps happening. Their security sucks and God knows their response to breaches sucks, too. Rather, lack thereof!
I would be devastated if this happened to me, too (and I also run some business pages so it would impact others along with my bottom line). I don’t even know what we can do to try to prevent it, other than changing passwords frequently and using really strong ones.
Again, I’m really sorry. Eff hackers who ruin things for innocent people!! 😡
LikeLike
That really does just suck – I hope you get original account back, for all the media if nothing else! I have enabled the MFA option for FB hoping it discourages a hacker, but even that is small comfort. And I don’t really post much nor have the level of integration you do! But it is still is a concern. Another friend was hacked recently too and she also resorted to a whole new account and trying to reconnect with her groups. So sorry it happened to you too.
LikeLike
Boy… my heart goes out to you. Don’t give up the fight. There must be a work around. Remember the squeaky wheel gets greased first. If you need us to become your posse and make calls or emails to Facebook/Meta or??? I’m game!
LikeLike
If you can find contact info for them please let me know, there’s not much out there aside from services for business accounts
LikeLike
Did you try calling the 800 number? 866-200-3531. I know that is a can of worms…
LikeLike
Unfortunately… I don’t know a lot of people who work in Silicone Valley. I only live an hour or so away. I would be happy to make an appointment and meet on your behalf if that is what it takes. I can’t imagine losing 15 years of your work and memories… I think your story is compelling and if there is a will there is a way! Damn it…
LikeLike
Thanks Kym. I have not been able to get in touch with a real person at all, using any of the methods I’ve found. 😕 Open to suggestions.
LikeLike
I know this is rote stuff I am suggesting… Did you actually talk with a support chat person? I have a PR background. If all your supporters made calls and said we are devastated that you have lost your page and would like to see it revived… I am an optimist and believe we can push any boulder up that hill.
LikeLike
My heart goes out to you, truly, having experienced a FB loss and attempted recovery that was nowhere near as massive as yours. I also had a sudden, no-warning, massive, purpose-shutdown issues with a business FB account. And it wasn’t even hacked to the degree that you are experiencing.
You’ve already heard this, but I’ll jump on the pile that Meta customer contact & support does not exist. There is none. There is no human behind the curtain.
FB has created a unique communications platform, gets us to invest our life’s time and energy, for *years*, and then bam it’s gone. And FB does not think that is important.
It’s like having a warehouse full of goods burn down, with no insurance. Worse, maybe, depending.
Having a blog like this might be one of the best ‘backups’ to what is on FB. Although I understand that probably most of your business activity is not on this blog, so maybe it isn’t so much help.
I wasted literally months trying to correct/reverse FB content loss AND blocks that shut down the page. That only suddenly emerged based on bogus, inaccurate criteria. Tried more than once thinking ‘maybe things have changed now’ and it could be recovered. Nothing ever worked. Had to go on from there.
I wish I could think of something happy & inspiring to say. You are still you, they didn’t take that away. 🙂 All the best as you work out the way forward from here!
LikeLike
Just read mh-A5. A person who speaks from personnel experience. I still think you might be able to find a crack or get lucky with your effort. I know you have a very busy schedule. Stay on this for a while and battle it out. Don’t wave a white flag just yet!
LikeLike
I’m glad I read that your account was hacked before I saw your new friend request, ha. BUT the other thing that did it is, I don’t think I was friends with your original account, So I was like, “wait, no, this is legit. Must accept to confirm she’s a real person to the other users of Facebook!” Luckily most of my photos etc are backed up elsewhere (phone or computer), but it’s a good reminder to keep backups of any media you really care about.
LikeLike
That really blows. I’m so sorry that happened to you. I’ve not heard any good experiences trying to get accounts back, which is clearly a big problem with Meta. I wish I had some suggestions for you.
LikeLike
This is so heartbreaking. I think I have been here for most of those 15 years & there was a goldmine attached to your account. I agree; I would feel like I had lost a part of my past that was so beautifully documented. So many memories. Ugh! I do know that if it is still there somewhere you will eventually find it. You have a knack for this stuff. Meanwhile, you are moving forward. Because that is what you do.
LikeLike