Facebook Restores Accounts Of 3 Critics It Mysteriously Deleted

from the don't-piss-off-facebook? dept

Mon, Feb 22nd 2010 6:21am — Mike Masnick

Apparently, three Argentines who worked on a book that mocks Facebook mysteriously had their Facebook accounts deleted in January. On top of that, a Facebook group of fans, who numbered in the tens of thousands, also disappeared. After the deleted profiles finally started getting attention, Facebook admitted it made a "mistake" and put the profiles back. The three individuals had been trying to get an explanation from Facebook for weeks with no luck -- and it was only when the press started picking up on the story that Facebook admitted its "mistake." Either way, it's a reminder that what you do on Facebook can disappear in an instant based on the company's whims.

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Filed Under: accounts, critics, deleted
Companies: facebook

25 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 22 Feb 2010 @ 6:29am

Either way, it's a reminder that what you do IN THE CLOUD can disappear in an instant based on whim.

There I corrected it for you.
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The Root, 22 Feb 2010 @ 6:40am

Facebook's stupidity
I guess you can't trust a company who could decide to remove you at any time without any prior notice.
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The Root, 22 Feb 2010 @ 6:40am

Facebook's stupidity
I guess you can't trust a company who could decide to remove you at any time without any prior notice.
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The Root, 22 Feb 2010 @ 6:42am

Re: Facebook's stupidity
Ops! I didn't know the error I got posted the comment anyways.
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Anonymous Coward, 22 Feb 2010 @ 6:46am

Yet another reason not to Facebook.
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yourrealname (profile), 22 Feb 2010 @ 6:52am

Facebook
For a company supposedly worth so much, their website is very clunky and un-user friendly. Wouldn't be a huge deal if that wasn't their main product! The user experience is terrible but since everything else on the web seems to have been built to work with Facebook, and everyone you know uses it, you're pretty much stuck having to use it if you want to use a social network at all. The fact that they are acting like MySpace when Fox took over, just deleting accounts they don't like to silence them and such, is hardly surprising. What are you going to do, use a different social network?
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Skeptical Cynic (profile), 22 Feb 2010 @ 7:11am

Two rules of the internet...
1. Anytime you put information out on the internet and then realize that you want it deleted it will spread to everyone and be copied and cached everywhere. Never to disappear.

2. Anytime you put information out on the internet and want everyone to know about it, it will disappear overnight without any warning and without any explanation.
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Dark Helmet (profile), 22 Feb 2010 @ 7:25am

Re: Two rules of the internet...
3. No matter what you're trying to do with what type of information, there will always be some unintended use or consequence to what you do
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Nick, 22 Feb 2010 @ 7:29am

Re: Two rules of the internet...
Thats not a rule confined to the internet... its a practical example of Murphys Law!!
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UhmNo, 22 Feb 2010 @ 7:36am

Re: Re: Two rules of the internet...
34. ...
Ah Never mind.
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btr1701 (profile), 22 Feb 2010 @ 7:51am

Is this a surprise?
It's a private web site, after all. Why is anyone surprised that they can delete whatever like for whatever reasons they like? Unless there are some kind of contractual terms prohibiting it, Facebook can do whatever it likes, even if it's not particularly smart from a business standpoint.
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John Do, 22 Feb 2010 @ 7:51am

What happens on Facebook...
...doesn't always stay on Facebook.
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Skeptical Cynic (profile), 22 Feb 2010 @ 7:53am

Re: What happens on Facebook...
Unless you are trying to get a job. In which case everything you have ever posted will be found by the potential employer.
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Tom Landry (profile), 22 Feb 2010 @ 8:16am

I quite frequently will click through on an embedded video to see it at YouTube itself -- often to see more about who posted it, or sometimes the comments on the video

I do this on nearly every embedded YouTube video I view.
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Tom Landry (profile), 22 Feb 2010 @ 8:17am

Re:
oop, wrong thread......
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someone who actually knows what he's talking about, 22 Feb 2010 @ 8:37am

Re: Is this a surprise?
exactly. if you don't like it, go out and make your own facebook style site, or make your own blog. this is not at&t here that has a natural monopoly over communications. there are countless other social networks.
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Nicholas Overstreet (profile), 22 Feb 2010 @ 9:21am

Facebook has got to be one of the most schizophrenic companies out there. On one hand they delete profiles on a whim. On the other hand, they won't let people delete their own profiles via Web 2.0 Suicide Machine. Make up your mind Facebook. Sheesh.
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Anonymous Coward, 22 Feb 2010 @ 9:38am

Re: Facebook
Instead of criticizing give an alternative bonjo!

How is it clunky? un-user friendly? etc
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Mike Masnick (profile), 22 Feb 2010 @ 10:33am

Re: Re: Is this a surprise?
exactly. if you don't like it, go out and make your own facebook style site, or make your own blog. this is not at&t here that has a natural monopoly over communications. there are countless other social networks.

I love this argument because of its pure ridiculousness.

"If you don't like something, stop complaining and go do your own thing."

Spoken by someone who absolutely hates our site. He, SWAKWHTA, why not take your own advice:

"If you don't like Techdirt, go out and make your own blog. Techdirt is not AT&T here that has a natural monopoly over other blogs. There are countless other blogs."

And yet.. here you are, day in, day out, complaining. Hypocrite.
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learn a little, 22 Feb 2010 @ 4:14pm

Re:
ummm... no. there are places in the cloud (supporting infrastructure) that are untouchable. organizations like Facebook make it seem, to minds like yours, that modern trends make parts of the cloud obsolete in one form or another (farthest thing from the truth when talking about the net). thank goodness that when portals like Facebook dissapear from the cloud in a whim, users like yourself and the crap they uploaded into the cloud, will go with them.
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someone who actually knows what he's talking about, 23 Feb 2010 @ 3:11am

Re: Re: Re: Is this a surprise?
are you retarded? these aren't even fractionally paralleled. if you started deleting my posts, or you banned my IP, that'd be one thing, but what i do here has nothing to do with what facebook did.

showing that you are inexperienced, untrained, and in it for the sensationalism isn't complaining. it's actually pretty fun. hell... even maddox realized this years ago. when you bitch and complain and tell everyone else that they're wrong, your position better be unassailable.

and before you respond "you should look in the mirror!" or something like that, you need to remember that you are the one complaining about the way things are.
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Mike Masnick (profile), 23 Feb 2010 @ 4:19am

Re: Re: Re: Re: Is this a surprise?
are you retarded?

This amuses me. The more we prove you consistently wrong, the more you resort to out and out insults. Very convincing.

these aren't even fractionally paralleled

Heh. Wow. I really don't know what to say if you honestly think that it's not okay for us to point out something that is wrong with what's happening, but it's fine for you to do it -- and then say that the situations are not the same. I'm speechless. The situations are clearly parallel. But apparently you didn't think I'd call you on it so you have to pretend they're not. Weak show.

showing that you are inexperienced, untrained, and in it for the sensationalism isn't complaining. it's actually pretty fun

If you had done any of those things, you'd have a point. But to date, every time you've tried to do any of those things, it took mere minutes to show that you were wrong -- often in hilarious ways -- which explains your continued failure to actually stand up for what you write by putting a name on it.

Of course, you'll never do that, because who would want to have their name associated with your type of rhetoric: baseless insults combined with being factually wrong on nearly every single comment.

even maddox realized this years ago. when you bitch and complain and tell everyone else that they're wrong, your position better be unassailable.

Who the hell is "maddox"? And, again, if you ever actually got something right, perhaps you'd have a point.

But so far, all you've done is made false claims that were easily proven as wrong. You claimed I said a judge said something that I never said. You claimed I confused revenue and units, when the numbers showed I had not. And on and on and on again. To date, the only one complaining and getting it wrong repeatedly has been you.

It's amusing to watch. Every few months we get some new troll show up here, but honestly, usually they're at least marginally competent at trolling. You're one of the more incompetent trolls we've seen in a while.
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martinpasha (profile), 23 Feb 2010 @ 2:45pm

Don't think so..
>You're one of the more incompetent trolls we've seen in a while.

He provoked you to this relatively long answer, right?
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Julie, 24 Feb 2010 @ 12:27pm

Facebook
Ahhh yes, another social networking site that randomly deletes user accounts. MySpace is facing a lawsuit in the Ninth Circuit over the same thing. Perhaps these companies will soon learn they cannot legally state they deleted your account due to a terms of use violation and you are able to prove them wrong with convincing evidence.

And then they publish a statement that your account was deleted due to violating the terms. Hello False Light claim !! The CDA doesn't apply when MySpace published the defamatory statement. Oh how the tide can quickly turn on these untouchable companies :)
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Mar, 24 Feb 2010 @ 8:23pm

A sign that we shouldn't be taking facebook too seriously like our neighbours do.
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