A Word of Advice Regarding the Use of Facebook for Anything Other Than Sharing Links Pointing to Your Content

By: Casey Jones

I want to note here that everyone should be aware of the fact that you can have NO reasonable expectation of anything you post on Facebook being there from one day to the next. I would advise anyone and everyone to avoid putting any amount of time or work into anything that will be stored directly on any of Facebook's servers. I would advise you not to upload any photos directly to Facebook (other than profile pictures and cover photos), not to write anything of any great length on Facebook, and to not post any content directly to Facebook anywhere on their platform, with the exception of links pointing to some other place where that content is stored.

I learned this the hard way after losing my account for no justified reason. This included my personal account, all of the pages I managed including my business page for B&C Goods and Services, and all of the groups I managed. The thousands of photos I uploaded over the years while I had my account, all of the friends and family members I had on my list who are now deceased, all of the friends and family members I had on my list who are still alive and well and have no idea that any of this even took place, all of the posts and the replies to posts, life events, memories with other people, every single bit of it wiped out with a single click of a mouse and without good reason, and with no explanation provided by Facebook as to why. The only thing Facebook offered was this: "Not Following Community Standards" and also that this decision was final and absolute, it can't be reviewed or reversed.

Mark Zuckerberg and his company claim that they set community building as one of their main priorities and that keeping those communities healthy requires that people feel safe while using their platform. This is the justification for the existence of their Community Standards and the disproportionate and inappropriate punishments, as well as their discriminate manner in which they apply these consequences to users who knowingly or unknowingly violate them. These claims to hold communities in such high regard cannot be genuine however, because numerous Facebook users have had their accounts permanently disabled and have been permanently forbidden by Facebook from making future accounts on their platform for sometimes very trivial reasons or even for no reason at all in some cases.

How can Mark Zuckerberg justify asserting that he holds communities in this high regard if he takes it upon himself or upon the self-appointed responsibility of his company to permanently remove any given user over a TOS violation without first asking every single user who is on that TOS violator's friends list whether or not it is okay with them if he (Zuckerberg) banishes that person forever from this place made for families and friends to interact with one another?  What gives Mark Zuckerberg the right to forbid all of the users on his platform from being able to communicate with any single one of their friends or family members? It is his establishment, for sure, so legally he has the right to do that if  he wants to, but people need to be aware that this happens a great deal more than most realize.

If you try to look at one of your friends' or family members' page one day and you see an error message stating that the content is missing, or that you don't have access to view it, do not assume that you've been blocked. First you should assume that your friend or family member has been secretly discarded and forbidden to be there any longer by the Owner of Facebook and without any of your input regarding that fact, or without any concern how you feel about it either.

Read More