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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

#61
post #56

Plot twist: OP is the hacker trying to get control over a recently deleted community :) Just kidding

I thought something among the lines. This would be a very good publicity stunt. I did not know about that metalised.wordpress.com wordpress page and I am an avid Heavy Metal listener. My first thought is, shit, I'm going to help this guy buy re-promoting his page. But then it landed on me... how good of a PR tactic this would be.

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

#62
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?

Only if the regular support team was involved to begin with.

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

#63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All of these things work well for the rich, but the number of unbanked working Americans is astronomical. They cash their checks for fees. Try visiting the customer service counter at a rural Walmart in the U.S. on a Friday and you will see what I mean. The line snakes back to the rear of the store.

Exactly how does commerce happen without banks at any scale? Banking has been around a lot longer than social media.

The unbanked Americans are people who either are unable to open an account, or have been denied opening accounts. To cash their checks, keep their income, etc..., they have to pay much more in fees.

Historically (in the U.S.) it was rooted in racism post-U.S. civil war. Now, less so. The history is still there, and the inability of poor people to obtain an account still exist. It excludes people from getting mortgages, loans, investing, etc. Cash App has become a digital bank for many of the unbanked. Before Cash App, decades ago, we had the U.S. Postal Service providing some banking services to Americans. (No, the USPS attempting to help Americans in this manner is not new, we've done it before)

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

#64
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…

The patio11 blog post you're looking for is https://www.kalzumeus.com/2017/09/09/identity-theft-credit-r...

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

#65
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?

The OP indicated he hadn't been able to get any sort of response from Facebook at all. I wouldn't consider this as first line of enquiry, it's more for if you can't get any help through regular channels.

I think it's worth pointing out that I'm not suggesting legal threats, which probably wouldn't work anyway with Facebooks size and terms of use. Just talking to their legal team won't necessarily invoke the "no-one else can now talk to them".

That's why asking questions like how law enforcement could engage to catch the hacker might be useful. It's not combative, it speaks more to anger at the hacker than at Facebook, but at the same time a human becomes aware of the problem.

The corporate lawyers that I've worked with spend a lot of time thinking about how things can go badly for a company. That means they're keen to mitigate risks, and they have latitude to actually do things. They have KPIs/OKRs that align with the current problem.

At the end of the day they potentially get to feel good about sorting this problem out as well.

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

#67

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.

It's not about private companies. I have an account at a private bank and am not afraid of something like this happening at all. Because to the bank I'm not just an abstract "username and password": the account is tied to my real world identity, so in the last resort I'll prove to the bank that I'm me using state provided means. I'm getting more and more convinced that online accounts important to people's livelihood…

The bank doesn’t do that for you. The bank does that because regulators require them to as a condition of being in the banking business.

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

#68
post #15

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.

Construction is private and buildings don't fall down and are incredibly safe. Food production is private and people don't get spoiled or poisonous products. I think this is reductive.

> People don't get spoiled or poisoned products.

I'm quite sure that this still happens only to lesser extents. Compare European food regulations to U.S. food regulations. American food while not explicitly killing people outright still has some ghosts in its past that are present in today's foods. See the Coca-Cola, Sugar companies, and 'fat-free' corporate lobbying of the FDA, as well as the huge advertising for terrible food has affected Americans.

The U.S. has food deserts, where fresh produce and food is either too expensive or impossible to find with substitutes being boxed goods laden with sugar and grains from the whale of corporations like General Mills and Kellogs.

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

#69
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…

The patio11 blog post you're looking for is https://www.kalzumeus.com/2017/09/09/identity-theft-credit-r...

Thank you!

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

#70

Thousands of years later, we’re still realizing impermanence is a thing, yet keep on keeping on trying to ignore that fact.

The OP's community didn't die by itself, it was killed. Impermanence is a very real thing, but when somebody goes and explicitly terminates something, focusing on the impermanence is wrong on all accounts.
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