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When Knowing Someone at Meta Is the Only Way to Break Out of "Content Jail"

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Re: When Knowing Someone at Meta Is the Only Way to Break Out of "Content Jail"

#41

Post by annoyingcyclist »

linsomniac wrote: post #12

Google, especially Google Corp, is very much that way too. One of my users is currently getting a fair bit of spam because a spammer figured out that if they send a message with envelope sender @google.com, rcpt @gmail.com, google.com MX will accept it, then bounce it with NoSuchUser and gmail will accept it. I spent an hour yesterday looking for a way to contact Google about it, but couldn't find anything. Made hard…

I've been slowly migrating logins off of a @gmail.com email and onto an email at a domain that I own/control for this reason. It's tedious and feels a little like an overreaction (presumably the odds of this happening to individual users are pretty low). On the other hand, the thought of some faceless fraud algorithm deciding that I should no longer have access to the credentials I use to log in to my bank, investment accounts, DMV, etc and having no real recourse beyond posting on HN and hoping that a sympathetic employee reads is pretty scary.

(I didn't want to actually host my own mail stack, so I just have a custom domain set up with fastmail and point the MX to them. Their UI is great and a breath of fresh air compared to gmail. I guess they could in theory decide to lock me out randomly too, though I trust them to have actual customer support and can just point the MX somewhere else in the worst case)

Re: When Knowing Someone at Meta Is the Only Way to Break Out of "Content Jail"

#42

Post by OptionOfT »

Same with bugs. Reporting bugs rarely seems effective anymore. Maybe my use-cases are more unique, but sometimes I stumble upon things where there the bug I encounter is 2 years old with 0 responses from the company, but I don't know how many comments from customers.

And it's already a hassle to report, so actual amount of people encountering the issue is probably higher.

One example comes to mind... I can't ask my Google Mini anymore to ping my remote. Many reports. Nothing from Google.

Re: When Knowing Someone at Meta Is the Only Way to Break Out of "Content Jail"

#43

Post by dfxm12 »

linsomniac wrote: post #12

Google, especially Google Corp, is very much that way too. One of my users is currently getting a fair bit of spam because a spammer figured out that if they send a message with envelope sender @google.com, rcpt @gmail.com, google.com MX will accept it, then bounce it with NoSuchUser and gmail will accept it. I spent an hour yesterday looking for a way to contact Google about it, but couldn't find anything. Made hard…

It gives scammers more plausibility too. If the top hit in a web search is Google's support page, which gives no phone number, then scammers can get race to get the number two hit with their number...

Re: When Knowing Someone at Meta Is the Only Way to Break Out of "Content Jail"

#45

Post by the_real_cher »

EGreg wrote: post #35

Don't y'all see? Every other day a story comes out about a centralized platform either: 1) Extorting for money: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45283887 2) Canceling accounts: https://www.eff.org/pages/when-knowing-someone-meta-only-way... 3) Has their algorithms choose what you see and hear: https://x.com/i/grok/share/NwPcWVxZiHQytvGs8MONRdpCi 4) Deplatforms you anytime: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deplatform…

we need to move away from centralized platforms asap

Re: When Knowing Someone at Meta Is the Only Way to Break Out of "Content Jail"

#46

Post by tiagobraw »

fmajid wrote: post #40
jimbo808 wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Customer service is for customers, not for products. You are the product.

Oh you sweet summer child, Google gives the cold shoulder to everyone , including paying customers.

for google you are just a paying product

Re: When Knowing Someone at Meta Is the Only Way to Break Out of "Content Jail"

#47

Post by toast0 »

j45 wrote: post #33
bestouff wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, but as long as you own you domain name you're a DNS update away of moving it elsewhere.

As long as? I'm not sure if there's a common way, largely practiced by many people where they don't own their own domain name that they can point anywhere?

It used to be common to let an outside agency run your website, and they may own the domain. It's probably still very common to manage your domain with your hosting company. If you get blacklisted by your hosting company, you may not be able to transfer your domain out.

Re: When Knowing Someone at Meta Is the Only Way to Break Out of "Content Jail"

#48

Post by alex1138 »

fmajid wrote: post #40
jimbo808 wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Customer service is for customers, not for products. You are the product.

Oh you sweet summer child, Google gives the cold shoulder to everyone , including paying customers.

See, I've been wondering about this. I would have thought paying gives you a better chance of contacting, unlike Meta Verified which is useless. Is that not the case?

Re: When Knowing Someone at Meta Is the Only Way to Break Out of "Content Jail"

#49

Post by intended »

Oh boy isn’t this the truth.

Firstly - Hah! this is the easier situation! This is Americans talking about reaching out to Americans. It’s even more fun when you are in another country, and need to go through your network to get attention to an issue.

Secondly - Everyone I know, who is in a T&S team or does content moderation hates this situation, and is glad that this is being highlighted. it’s considered unfair and absurd. Getting recourse because people know someone who know someone to get it to the right team, is NOT how things should work. Let alone at global levels.

I can give maybe a smaller firm or platform a pass. But at FAANG scales? Cmon.

——

This is also a reason why I think that Reddit dug its own grave, back when it found the testicular fortitude to oust moderators during the API black outs.

If a firm has the willingness to remove mods and craft new philosophies of engagement when the bottom line at risk - does it magically lose that capability during the remainder of the financial year?

Re: When Knowing Someone at Meta Is the Only Way to Break Out of "Content Jail"

#50

Post by pogue »

Unrelated to reproductive rights, but my private Instagram account got suspended for community guidelines violations out of the blue & I lost all access to my old photos, my friends, contacts, years of DMs. I don't have the slightest idea what triggered it (and of course they won't tell you), nor is there apparently any way I'm aware of to appeal. Interestingly, I still have access to meta[.]ai for whatever reason, so I'm wondering if there is some way to talk to it to get out of InstaJail, or finding a prompt to get it to give you more info on who to contact or ANYTHING at all.

However, after hunting around on reddit for solutions, I was quickly made aware of underground groups of individuals (hackers? I'm not sure what you'd call them) who offer account recovery for up to 1 to 2 grand per instance. These aren't just the people who send you phishing messages claiming to get your account back, but offer full services such as promotion, getting unbanned, having other users banned and etc.

We've seen news reports in the past where individuals or groups get backend access into Meta and then offer these sorts of features. [1]

But who else has access to these sorts of tools & features? I wouldn't be surprised at all if Meta moderators or employees are making a very nice side hustle for themselves doing this, as they'd have not only the access, but presumably know how to hide their tracks.

Just a theory. Anyway, if anyone has any ideas on getting an Instagram account back or filing an appeal or whatever, any info would be appreciated.

[1] https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-instagram-fac...

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