Eight weeks ago, our Facebook (FB) page
(facebook.com/thecoolhunter) with all of its content and our 788,000
fans – resources we have created and nurtured meticulously over the past
five years - was gone.
Not blocked or invisible, but completely gone. Disabled. “Page does not
exist.” No explanation, flimsy warnings, no instructions on what to do
next. None of our numerous attempts to rectify the situation and
resurrect the page have worked.
And because we suspect there are other businesses in the same bind,
we are writing this to seek help and encourage open conversation. This
is not a minor problem. This is a huge issue and potentially fatal to
businesses. We feel that FB must change its one-sided, secret policies
and deal with us, and others like us, openly and fairly.
(Image found on Facebook without image credit.)
Important part of our business
Up till that day eight weeks ago, our FB fan base increased by about
1,500 to 2,500 per day, and the page generated more than 10,000
click-throughs to our site, TheCoolHunter.net (TCH), per day.
TCH is an almost eight-year-old design and pop-culture site. We have 2.1
million monthly site visits, a 186,000-strong newsletter subscriber
list that reads like the Who-Is-Who of the design and marketing media.
We have 247,000 Twitter and 100,000 Instagram followers.
But our Facebook presence has been a unique and extremely important part
of our strategy. It is the water cooler of our global community.
Losing our FB page is not just a minor hick-up. It is a serious loss of
connection and interaction, and of a massive amount of content.
We post items on FB that may not make it to the actual blog, giving
hundreds of artists and designers exposure, and thousands of fans
something new to see. Our FB page provides the interaction, comments and
ideas that help us keep our editorial fresh. It helps us generate
ideas for our weekend playlists, gives us tips for our world tours on
what to do and see in each city. Most important, our FB community keeps
us on our toes, generates great ideas and feedback, and lets us know
when we are on the right track.
Our FB community is truly global. At any time of day or night, we would
get immediate reactions from hundreds of fans around the world on
pretty much any question we would ask. It has become crucially
important to us to stay connected in this way. It is a vital link to
our community.
Since our page has been disabled, we have also receive hundreds of
emails and messages daily from fans worrying where we have gone.
(Image found on Facebook without image credit.)
What did we do?
In essence, we want to know this: What did we do? How do we rectify it?
We have never intentionally broken any FB rules and we are willing to
do whatever it takes to get our page back. But we do not have the
answers and we do not know how to get them. We have tried everything in
our power, and we are getting nowhere.
We had a momentary glimpse of hope when we asked for help via Twitter. The young and savvy Nina Mufleh @ninamufleh contacted
us and said she could help reinstate it. And she did! We got our page –
minus its content. In five days, we had more than 400,000 fans back.
But then FB disabled it again. Again, no email, no warning - just gone.
That’s when we started to get really annoyed.
Infringement of what?
When our page was initially disabled, we contacted FB. The only response
we received was “This user was disabled for repeat IP infringement.”
We have no idea what we were infringing on. Which image/s or posts,
specifically, have caused this?
We know of only two infringements – two situations where FB closed our
account , and we argue strongly that they were not infringements at all.
The problem with this is that you don’t know if what you are posting could irk FB.
But even if FB disagrees with the images we posted, are two images enough to kill our account with no chance of recourse?
The other reason that could have caused the closure of our FB page is
that we sometimes use images even when we do not know who has taken the
picture.
With FB, Tumblr, Pinterest and all the other image-sharing opportunities
today, millions of people and organizations share images – theirs and
someone else’s - freely every day. We WANT to give credit always, but
in many cases we cannot find that information. On our “About Us” page
and on our (now extinct) FB page we specifically state that if we have
posted an image that belongs to you, we want to know, so that we can
give you the appropriate credit.
Similar issues were discussed in a Huffington Post article here:
If they made any sense at all, they would give you us the contact
info of the person who is complaining, so that we can resolve the issue
with them. Right now, a completely anonymous and faceless Facebook
tells you that a completely anonymous and potentially even false third
party has complained about your page. Why can they not be open?
We have no idea why openness is such a foreign thing to them. And more
important, we cannot believe that they think that everyone who clicks
“share” on FB has checked that they personally have the right to post
that image! That is a ridiculous idea. If people did that, FB would not
be the business it is. It would be a tiny little official online
group of insiders who share each others’ images and copy. Facebook is
founded on FREE SHARING. They make their money based on that sharing.
The key point is that absolutely every one of us has posted images
AND COPY whose author we do not know and whose authors’ permission we
do not have. Facebook is built on this sharing. As are pretty much all
other social media platforms. So, why do they attack a few and not all,
if they are the police?
Bottom line: We need and want our Facebook account back. But we do not know how.
Do you? Do you have a back-up plan for if this happens to your business? Can you be sure it won’t happen to you? We think not.
It seems ridiculous to severely penalize a business for doing what most Facebook users do daily.
