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Ask HN: Hacker claimed ownership and then deleted my Facebook Page of 50k users

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Re: Ask HN: Hacker claimed ownership and then deleted my Facebook Page of 50k users

#111
post #95
post #33

I'm sorry that this happened to you. What i am about to propose is not a solution for you for now unfortunately. But maybe something to help for the future...Have you considered starting a new presence for yourself and your community on the fediverse (e.g. mastodon, pleroma, diaspora, friendica, etc.)?? This will take work and time of course and maybe not all members will follow you over, but if you start a new commu…

I think you have too high hopes for the possibility to get non tech-geek users to try the Fediverse. If Heavy Metal Community A on Facebook disappears overnight, I think the users will simply join Heavy Metal Community B (on Facebook).

You might be correct. I do not know the community in question nor the desire of the community leader here nor their background for interest in what i suggested. But i figured, i just provide a proposal, that's all.

And, separately, while the fediverse is vastly dwarfed in participation numbers by convenional social media...at last count there are several millions of users engaged within the fediverse...Now, that number fluctuate wildly depending on sources from single digit millions of users to double digit millions of users, etc...But there are still quite a large number of people nowadays on the fediverse. I happen to know many users (that i ineract with constantly) on the fediverse who are most definitely not tech-geeks. I win nothing if this community leader listens to me or not...again, i was just proposing a suggestion.

Re: Ask HN: Hacker claimed ownership and then deleted my Facebook Page of 50k users

#112
post #16

Sometimes company legal teams can be the most accessible way to draw attention to something like this, and I don't mean in a combative way. They're very risk conscious, they see a '10+ years of building a heavy metal community, gone like a puff of smoke' in terms of risks, both of bad publicity but also if you were to somehow litigate because of the damage to your business or project. Often they have an email address…

Surely involving the legal team would mean the regular support team could no longer be involved?

> regular support team

Sorry, what do you mean?? The non existing team??

Re: Ask HN: Hacker claimed ownership and then deleted my Facebook Page of 50k users

#113
post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Facebook engineers wouldn't be able to help unless they can personally vouch for the person affected for privacy and security reasons.

Didn't Facebook had an internal employees only support system that was quick to respond a was encouraged to be used on friend and family issues?

Yes, but limited to family or friends that you could personally vouch for.

Re: Ask HN: Hacker claimed ownership and then deleted my Facebook Page of 50k users

#114

Universally necessary services like communication, healthcare, and social media (the digital plaza) can never be justly managed by private companies. It is an inherent structural contradiction that has failed and will continue to fail our society until we are willing to organize resistance beyond the realm of consumer choice.

Social media is in no way on the same level as healthcare, are you kidding me?

You do not need Facebook to survive, nor do you need Facebook to participate in your community.

Unreal. Just… unreal.

Re: Ask HN: Hacker claimed ownership and then deleted my Facebook Page of 50k users

#115
post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So just imagine what happens when the government controls the communications. What happens when “they” get into power and start censoring and controlling communications that you don’t agree with? In this case “they” are the party with policies that you don’t agree with. There was a study in the US that the government fails to pass policies that 80%+ of the population agrees with. One easy example is making cannabis l…

Some of us still live in functioning democracies. Also, it's worth pointing out that relying on privately owned or publicly traded corporations is not an effective strategy for preserving freedom; those businesses will only do that as long as they can justify it to their shareholders (private or public), and are subject to whatever laws apply in the jurisdictions they reside in (kind of the reason alot of 'western' c…

So the US has the highest incarceration rate of any western country. The police routinely stop and harass minorities for no other reason than the color of their skin, the judicial system routinely hands out harsher punishment for the same crime when the defendant is minority, etc.

Even when you take race out of the equation, when you look at the congressional make up in the US and compare it to the party more people actually voted for, it’s just the opposite. The last president didn’t win the popular vote.

Private corporations don’t have the power of the state to coerce me to do anything. The government does. Why would I want to give the government more power? We see both dudes trying to control communications.

Apple is definitely not working with China at arms length. Neither is Microsoft. Google still makes the little hardware it does in China.

As far as functioning government you mean Europe where laws were passed like the GDPR that only led to cookie warnings on every web page?

Re: Ask HN: Hacker claimed ownership and then deleted my Facebook Page of 50k users

#116
post #25

Probably not the advice you're looking for, but looks like you have a blog also and am assuming that some/many of your subscribers also look at your blog. So, you may want to use your blog to spread the word about losing your page so that your subscribers know what's happening and you don't lose many of them. In addition, while you should keep looking at ways to recover your FB page, but you may want to take this opp…

Thank you for the advice! The problem with this is that, even though the Facebook Page was simply mirroring the content on the blog, most of the interactions with actual bands and fans was via the Facebook page, not the blog. I don't really know if the blogpage itself has the same readership; if anything it's the other way round: I'm worried that with the Facebook page gone, people won't know to find the blog. And wi…

Reach out to bands who know you personally and ask them if they'll help spread the word about the new community. You can coordinate to do so on a particular date.

Reddit has a couple of popular metal subreddits, etc.

Re: Ask HN: Hacker claimed ownership and then deleted my Facebook Page of 50k users

#117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Very HN response. "My FB community got destroyed. Can anyone else?" "FB bad. Build your own." Sorry OP. I don't know anyone who can help. It seems to me like FB would be able to reactivate the group if you can get a hold of someone. I don't think they purged their DB of your group.

It's not very empathetic that's right but it's still true. People have to stop building their livelihoods or passion projects on these platforms, if they want to have any control over them at least.

Sure. If you want to make sure some big company doesnt control your group then you should build your own platform. But could this person do that? Maybe. Does this person have the capability to do that? Maybe. Most people wouldnt. I'm a swe and I wouldnt really know how to start my own website, get traction, and grow a community. But I know how to make a facebook group.

I guess its the right advice if you want to ensure nothing bad can happen but the likelihood of someone actually doing that for a project they do in their spare time is tiny. It's like saying, "You should only communicate with these people via telegraph because thats the only way you can be sure that no one can prevent you from doing so."

It's a solution. It's not incorrect. But it isnt a good solution for the vast majority of individuals.

Re: Ask HN: Hacker claimed ownership and then deleted my Facebook Page of 50k users

#118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Both have regulations written in blood, though. Lives have been lost which is why rules exist in these fields.

The argument by the parent is clearly not against regulations in a market economy, they didn't say anything implying that. The argument is against the necessity of government ownership and operation.

Yeah that's a fair point.

Re: Ask HN: Hacker claimed ownership and then deleted my Facebook Page of 50k users

#119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you want a society where people do those kinds of things, maybe you should build your own society that fits your criteria. I know it's not very empathetic to say but it's still true.

I rather try to educate the people I know about the consequences of relying on companies like Meta for things like that hoping it doesn't happen to them. That's all we can do. And I guess contributing to the technology that enables alternatives.

But saying build it yourself isnt educating. It's akin to saying, "You should have known better". Sure. They should have. They probably did. But when someone is asking for help and you say you should have made a different decision 10 years ago to prevent this you are not educating.

Re: Ask HN: Hacker claimed ownership and then deleted my Facebook Page of 50k users

#120
post #35
post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're assuming that public organizations would run a more secure responsive network. My interactions with public institutions makes me doubt this assumption, especially for something as vast and complicated as facebook's network.

I will point out that in Canada, many of our telecoms were run by privately operated, publicly owned organizations (Crown Corporations) that operated at arms length. Until they were sold for pennies on the dollar by governments looking to score a quick win for "fiscal responsibility" and "small government", these organizations operated with a high degree of public scrutiny, and had the goal of offering low cost, reli…

FYI, corps like Bell Canada, Telus, BCttel were not government owned, department or crown corp.

They were just highly protected by government regulation. The only ones allowed to do certain things, along with mandated Canadian ownership requirements. They had a defacto monopoly.

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