Facebook Responds

Facebook has responded to my email in which I asked why the ID account has been disabled. They are saying they cannot verify the ownership of the account, which is odd, since I am not using the name of a person, but my own website for the name of the page. Check out my correspondence with them:

To Whom It Concerns:

My (website’s) Facebook account—which I do not profit from in any way—was suspended without warning within the last two weeks. Although I had been warned in the past about requesting too many friends, I had not requested anyone in quite some time. While my page is not a personal page, it is nonetheless a vibrant forum of discussion for issues regarding politics and religion. I believe a disservice has been done to the hundreds of people who participate in that exchange. I would appreciate being informed as to why the account was disabled, as well as being told what steps I may take to remedy this issue.

Regards,

Max Canning

Hi,

At this time, we cannot verify the ownership of the account under this address. Please reply to this email with a scanned image of a government-issued photo ID (e.g., driver’s license) in order to confirm your ownership of the account. Please black out any personal information that is not needed to verify your identity (e.g., social security number). Rest assured that we will permanently delete your ID from our servers once we have used it to verify the authenticity of your account.

Please keep in mind that fake accounts are a violation of our Statement of Rights and Responsibilities. Facebook requires users to provide their real first and last names. Impersonating anyone or anything is prohibited.

In addition to your photo ID, please include all of our previous correspondence in your response so that we can refer to your original email. Once we have received this information, we will reevaluate the status of the account. Please note that we will not be able to process your request unless you send in proper identification. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

Thanks,

Zoe
User Operations Analyst
Facebook

Hello,

Thank you for you assurance that my scanned photo ID will be discarded by Facebook upon receipt and confirmation. However, I have learned to be very wary of such requests, even made by reputable outfits because I cannot guarantee my security will not be compromised. But I’m having a hard time understanding why this is necessary, considering that my Facebook page is not in my name, but in the name of my website. I am impersonating no one on my Facebook page, on which I only use my first name, Max. Second, I fail to see how a photo of me will help you considering that I have no photos of myself (or anyone else on the page or site). Since this is the email I used to establish the Facebook page which was linked to my website, if I post this correspondence on www.inebriateddiscourse.com (which you can verify) then this will clearly demonstrate that I am the proprietor of of both the website and its Facebook page. If verification of ownership is the issue, this will effectively remedy the problem.

Also, if I may ask, why all of a sudden was this account disabled? It has existed for almost a year. Why was it disabled now? I doubt you make this request of everyone, so I'm curious to know what the catalyst for this inquiry was.

I look forward to your response.

Max

Stay tuned.