One More Reason I Hate Facebook
Several years ago I did do some paid advertising over on Facebook but all I ended up doing was losing money, so I stopped all my ads from running.
Some of those ads were in an “ongoing” status – these were ads that ran from day to day (no end date) on a very low budget.
However, I turned off all my ads so they weren’t active and I wasn’t being billed for them.
Over time, I simply forgot about them.
Then, maybe a year or so ago, I got a strange message from Facebook saying that my ads were violating their advertising policy.
“What ads?“, I thought as I hadn’t actively advertised there in years.
“Must be a screwup“, I surmised and I ignored the message.
Then I received another message about my Facebook advertising account getting some restrictions as a result of not actioning the former message.
“I don’t care“, I thought.
“I’m never going to run and pay for ads on Facebook again, so I don’t care what happens to the advertising account“.
Little did I know that ignoring that message resulted in my overall account getting some hidden restrictions as a result of the advertising account restrictions.
Here’s my account status when accessed from my main settings:
The Fallout From Those Account Restrictions
But, because the ads I was no longer publishing and paying for were still in an “ongoing” status, those ad account restrictions were being renewed every month.
And those restrictions were bleeding over into my main FB account but were being hidden from me as the above screenshot shows.
Not that I noticed as I could publish posts, comment on others’ posts, add posts in Groups and do all the other stuff that you normally do on Facebook .
But yesterday, I found out about those overall account restrictions.
Yesterday afternoon, I tried to link up my FB account to one of my Instagram accounts.
The Impossibility of Linking My Instagram And Facebook Accounts
I couldn’t link them because my account was restricted, I was told.
So I tried doing this hookup from Instagram first.
And because the error message was so uninformative, I didn’t know if the error was on Instagram’s or Facebook’s end!
I later found out it was FB because when I tried hooking the two platforms up from within Facebook, I kept getting the same error.
So restrictions on my no-longer-used advertising account were preventing me from linking my Instagram and Facebook accounts.
Trying To Figure Out Why
I spent several hours yesterday afternoon going down rabbit hole after rabbit hole to find out what was happening and why…
…because different parts of FB and the business account app kept taking me to different destinations.
It’s when I finally got to see the ads I’d published years ago that I found the source of all my problems.
All my ads were turned off, so not active but some still had the “Ongoing” status.
And these ads were resulting in my overall Facebook account getting some restrictions.
Check the above image to see that disabled ads are still being tested for ad policy compliance, which is ludicrous.
For some moronic reason (read: badly coded algorithm) Facebook still takes action on an “ongoing” ads current status with regard to FB’s ad policy…
…even though the ads are turned off and have been since 2018!
“So, I’ll just delete all the ads!“, I thought.
Nope.
Can’t do that because you can’t edit or delete ads in an account that’s restricted!
So I had no way to rectify Facebook’s fuck-up on reviewing some turned-off ads as being active.
I was able to request that the ad account be removed entirely but for some inexplicable reason, that takes 3 business days rather than being instant.
I have no idea if deleting an ad account will have any effect on the restrictions on my account because Facebook provides no such information.
I Tried To Appeal The Restrictions On My Facebook Account…
My last recourse was to submit an Appeal on the restrictions.
There’s only 3 options provided, the first 2 of which I didn’t think were relevant to my case.
So I chose the “Other reason” option, fully expecting to be presented with a textbox where I could explain my reasons for seeking an appeal.
Nope.
I was taken straight to a message telling me I’d hear back in 48 hours on the results of my appeal.
I fully expect it to be rejected because Facebook gave me no opportunity to explain what’s gone wrong and how it can be easily fixed (simply delete all my ads).
When All Else Fails…
My last option, should Facebook not grant my appeal would be to take them to court.
There is no, zero, nada way to talk to a human, or even a chatbot for that matter, for Facebook users.
You’re left high-and-dry when things get screwed up on their end.
Jesus, what a fucked up platform this is.
And people wonder why I don’t spend much time there.
I have a new name that accurately describes facebook: Fecesbook!
All the best,
Gary Nugent
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