A long time ago, when Facebook and Twitter were legitimate rivals of Web 2.0, we used to be able to automatically cross-post our Twitter status to our Facebook profiles, via a built-in feature. No fancy external apps.
Around the same time, (probably at the peak of my social media popularity) Facebook trialed a feature to convert your Profile into a Page, automatically including all your friends as followers on it. Naturally, I beta tested it. That was the first step on a slow journey to Facebook becoming unusable to me: that new Facebook Page was unusable for a whole year?! Apparently tech support said it gained a suspiciously high number of followers too fast… from a built-in feature. Try as I might, every month, their customer service was useless.
Years later, after the FB Page was finally usable, I’d try to run ads with it (alongside other FB Pages I administrated at the time.) I was in the UK, so I paid in GB£
After that, I moved back to Malaysia. Suddenly, almost all my Meta accounts were blocked. The system insisted I use my old British mobile number to verify my account, but my Giffgaff mobile number had since expired (I’ve been back in Malaysia for a month now, and I thought I had changed my 2FA number to my Malaysian mobile number.) It took me many tries, but I managed to get back in with Email verification.
Then, I tried running some ads, and chose to pay for it in RM. After a few weeks, my personal account was banned alongside my Ad account. Apprently the geography was wrong? (Back then, there weren’t many profile settings, etc. to indicate a change in geography.) Anyway, I had to open a new Ad account, and chose to pay in RM. No problems for a few months.
Then, I started my professional career as a Social Media Manager. I had to buy ads for clients, etc. and because of the volume, my Ad account got banned (this was around the same time Brexit and Trump re-election attempt happened for the first time, so I understood the need for more scrutinity.)
I opened my first Facebook Business Manager (FBM) account (now called Meta Business Suite, I think? They keep changing the name) and it came with a new Ad manager account. Everything was going well for a few years, until…
Trump got elected a second time, and everyone’s Ad managers came under scrutinity again. As someone who buys ads, etc. and uses Meta services on a daily basis for professional work, of course my account might become an engagement outlier. Suddenly, my personal FB profile, and all the FB Pages I manage were unable to post into FB Groups (which the Pages themselves administrated.)
My only workaround was a backup FB Profile, which was also co-admin of the aforementioned FBM. Only then could my FB Pages be used. This was 2025.
Less than a year later, my old, inactive Ad accounts (which owed Meta zero monies) got flagged. I couldn’t even run ads on my current FBM, which I have run RMX0,000 worth of ads in the last few years…
So, I reached out to Meta’s customer service once again. Surely, their CRM can see that I’ve been reaching out to them literally every couple of months, for years! the agent promised to investigate, file a case, etc. none of them every helped… instead, they suspended my backup account yesterday.
Not to jinx it, but my Instagram accounts still work. They were acquired in 2012, and have not fully integrated into Facebook. As an Ad manager and Social Media Specialist, I can tell you how disjoined the services still are… (Lightbox‘s photo filters made their debut on Instagram last year.)
I cannot express how infuriated I am: decades of my personal life online, and the whole of #KakiTabletop & MOVIC‘s Facebook Page/Group setup is now in jeopardy. Apparently, reddit is now the goto place to find out many others are experiencing similar problems in the last 24 hours.
Meta is spending US$600 billion on AI infrastructure, and trimming headcount to pay for it. Yesterday, employees in the wearables and ads divisions received HR emails directing them to work remotely on Wednesday; note that Meta leadership will spearhead push to get employees using more AI, but their previous attempt to use AI to replace human moderators, resulting in massive errors.