Member-only story
Is Facebook Going Out of Business?
Tens of thousands of users are having their accounts deactivated: no customer service
On December 20, I went to check my Facebook account and could not log in.
A disturbing message appeared.
When I pressed “Log into your Instagram account,” I could not do so. “Nisaldebora9543182” deleted their account just as I looked at it.
After wasting an hour trying to obtain some type of information about this, I stumbled on a 22,000 member Reddit group: r/facebookdisabledme. The majority of people posting on the group experienced the same thing that I did. Reading messages, I learned that the only possible direct recourse was to use my still-existing Instagram account to apply for Meta Verified, where living staff members might be able to help.
Some of the messages in the group were heartbreaking: young people trying to help elderly, housebound relatives who used the social media service to stay in touch with family and friends.
The only reason I used Facebook in recent years was to stay in touch with cousins and other extended family; we’d also discovered a positive, beneficial use for Facebook locally. Our area of SW Florida has several active women’s friendship groups, as well as community information pages.
We don’t have much of a local newspaper and the one we do have is paywalled to the extreme; local news, information, and above all, especially in recent years, calls for help in the wake of hurricanes all took place primarily on Facebook.
What’s the story here? How did this happen?
I was quickly able to locate messages from 2022 on X (Twitter) referring to how to exploit Instagram login codes to ‘login’ to someone’s Instagram, set up a new account, use it for ads, spam, pornos, and then delete it. These…
