Facebook disabled my account permanently!
On 29th December 2025 Facebook’s automated system decided to disable my account without warning or the ability to appeal. They cite “account integrity” concerns which suggests they think the account was hijacked or being used nefariously but I’ve used it without any infractions for over 10 years.
I’ve since learned that this has been happening to a lot of people around the world – the BBC even had a news story on it back in July 2025. The pattern always seems that you are randomly asked to fill in one of those “human check” forms with a series of numbers or letters (easy), then they ask you to submit a “selfie video” where you show your face from left and right sides. Then the system says it will go away and check your details – but you still get disabled. Here is a good explanation from an expert on Reddit. There is also a petition (currently 50,000+) demanding Meta are held accountable for the distress they are causing innocent people.
Of course, I downloaded my 8GB of data but it is a mess of photos, messages and posts with very little structure so they are next to useless. The list of friends it gave me has no contact details for them so I have no way to get back in touch with literally hundreds of friends and colleagues around the world. Furthermore, all the posts I have made over the years sharing help and information to others have gone – all deleted by Meta. It’s utterly heartbreaking.
I’m going through some advice from people who have managed to get accounts reenabled and it basically takes a long time and but you have to:
- Contact Meta’s Data Protection Officer (DPO) and demand that they exercise your GDPR section 22 rights to a human review of your case
- Contact the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) and complain that your rights have been infringed – at this point also bring in your MP and employer (I admin the NHM’s Facebook presence and this ban prevents me from doing my job!)
- Then possibly other avenues including taking Meta to the small claims court – see this article
Friends have also asked why I don’t just create another account but it’s apparently not that simple. Once Meta’s AI thinks you are not a genuine person they will usually ban all your subsequent accounts created or used on the same IPs or computers because they will claim I am circumventing their rules. So, I need to take it slowly and go through all the recommended appeals first to avoid muddying the waters.
I am still contactable on:
- Email: bugman_uk@hotmail.com and c.raper@nhm.ac.uk
- WhatsApp: 07775673467
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bugman_uk/
- Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/user/Simple_Resist4208/
- BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/chrisraper.bsky.social
- X / Twitter: https://x.com/ChrisRaper
But I am a bit worried about WhatsApp & Instagram because they are all owned my Meta.
