Poof! Facebook Bug and Now Your Profile Is Gone

UPDATE: Despite swamping Meta with emails for five solid days, submitting every Meta form available (none relevant or delivered to a human), buying Meta Verified for faster access, posting Greg’s blog on X (below) and tagging Meta, jumping into Reddit forums with dozens of others also disabled out of the blue, filing a report with the California Attorney General—despite trying every trick in the book, the Meta fortress remained impenetrable, inhabited apparently only by bots. And I’ve yet to hear back from the AG.

So how did my “permanently disabled” account reappear? Last week, I asked a friend who had once worked for Microsoft if he knew anyone who worked for Facebook. It was a longshot. When he wrote, “Actually, I do—one person,” I tried not to get my hopes up. He told her of my situation, and we waited. When we didn’t hear back, he figured she wasn’t high enough in the organization. Then today, she asked for a new email account to send to a "business performance manager of commerce integrity,” who apparently would look into it.

Mere minutes after I created and sent a new email, I received a code and my account was back up—completely intact. All there—memories, photos, messages, and the ability to access my author page. Nothing short of a miracle. (Any of you who offered prayers on my behalf, thank you!)

There are thousands of users who, like me, have been blindsided by this particular FB breach and who will never get their disabled accounts back. Their outrage and frustration has been mine for the last five days. It's beyond infuriating to be wronged by a FB security weakness (I had EVERY security measure in place) and then do all the right things to right the wrong, only to be wronged again by being granted no recourse whatsoever, shunted to “feedback” form after feedback form, stymied at every turn and faulted for the first wrong you never did!

As my friend said—the one who just happened to have a contact inside FB—”FB should absolutely make this easier for the masses, not just for the few who have an insider.”

Easier? I’d settle for “possible.” Complete breach of privacy allowed by FB—a class action lawsuit is already underway.

Grateful for friends in my life, the God who provides them, and you, my colleagues. Thanks for the support and prayers.
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So this happened to me last Friday. Be aware it could happen to you too. A cyber security expert and author friend blogged about it here. Without access to my personal page, I have no access to my author page, though thankfully my daughter does. Still at it with them.

Meanwhile, the timing couldn’t be worse. Just launched my reader magnet yesterday, with my debut novel slated for October. Probably will create a new page just to get access to my author page. If allowed, I’ll post my reader magnet on authormedia.social since I’ve lost 600 followers on FB.

https://www.dgregscott.com/its-a-facebook-bug-poof-your-profile-is-gone/