Facebook and YouTube Penalty Revoked!
Over the last month and a half I have had my Facebook page taken down + just recently had a YouTube video flagged as inappropriate and removed.
I have however had both of these penalties removed, and since it might happen to others here at some point, I just want to share my experiences as it might help you, if you ever end up in a similar situation.
The Facebook penalty:
Just over a month ago I one day logged into Facebook and found out my Facebook page for one of my niches had been taken down.
It had been unpublished, as it had apparently been found inappropriate.
I found this very strange, as I had not done anything spammy and also focus on giving quality info. But maybe somebody I had given a bad review flagged the page.
Still not sure what the reason was, but Facebook had decided to unpublish my site.
I read through the terms they referred to, but I could not see how I would have violated any terms. So appealed, as you have this option on FB.
Shortly after I however received a reply that said they had received the appeal but still believed my page violate their terms.
I still did not get any explanations – quite frustrating. Luckily you have the option to appeal again on FB, so I did this and explained that I would be happy to make changes, but I needed to know what I had to change.
The next day I logged in I had received a reply, and they said they had looked again, and it was a mistake my page had been taken down, and it was now back live.
My YouTube video was taken down:
Just a few days ago I then experienced something similar with YouTube.
Only a few hours after having uploaded a new video I got a message saying I had received strike one on my YouTube account. My video had been flagged by someone, and YT had reviewed and taken it down, as it violated their guidelines.
This was really confusing – I did nothing else than I have done the last year on that channel. And it was a good honest review – but it was harsh, as I believe the service I reviewed is very poor.
Do not know if somebody from that company flagged it, but it was taken down very quickly by YouTube. When looking at what else is on YouTube, this seemed very surprising to me. But when looking at how poor this company is and how few YouTube videos there are about it, I suspect that it could potentially be them trying to shut down any negative video reviews – but it is only I guess.
I of course then read through the terms, but the problems is that you are just told you violate the guidelines, but not which one, so you have to read and guess yourself.
I did not see how I violated any rules, so appealed the decision.
After a couple of days, I got a message from YT. They had reviewed my video again, and agreed that it does not violate any guideline, so my strike was removed and my video was back live.
What to do if you get a Facebook or YouTube penalty?
This has been a couple of interesting experiences for me. Luckily both of me appeals where however heard.
So if this happen to you, I just want to explain how I have used it. First of all it is a good occasion to read the terms and to critically look at what you are doing, to see if you need to make adjustments.
If you have made mistakes, then make corrections.
But if you feel it is unjust, make an appeal and try to explain as precisely as possible why you appeal.
In my case, I have had both penalties revoked, and at the same time learned a lot more about the terms and conditions on both platforms:-)
Hope this can help you, if you ever get into one of these situations (hopefully you will not).
Also, would be great to hear from you in a comment below, if you had any similar experiences.
All the best,
Mikael
Recent Comments
33
Hi, Mikael. Thanks for sharing this important info. I have not had any experience with either FB or YT, but appreciate the heads up in case I ever get brave enough to try it!
Thanks for sharing. My bootcamp page was also unpublished without explaination around 2-3 months ago. I appealed seeking clarification and my results were identical to yours....i have not appealled again. I actually gave up on the platform instead. The Facebook forums are full of business owners complaining about how rough this whole process can be. Made me question what role social media has on my companies moving forward.
Thanks for the tip. The facebook forums are filled with horror stories and it really put me off using them for my business. How can a computer make such critical business decisions? Very unfair.....and Facebook is on the nose now anyway. People are deserting them in droves.
Yes sometimes it definitely seems unfair. I am also not too dependent on FB, but like being there. But we of course have to prioritize our effort and time to what makes the most sense for us.
It is definitely also possible to build a successful online business without using FB at all.
Thanks for sharing, Mikael, I think the key element here is if we think that it is unjustified, then appeal, a lot of folks don't.
Another element, is that in most instances, it is not the platform but other users objecting, that is the reason for many bans, it is currently an automated process, human intervention and review only comes at the appeals stage.
Just an opinion, but that is why there is never a clear indication, of exactly what the guidelines transgression is.
From observation, one of the benefits of appealing successfully, is that they tend to leave you alone moving forward.
Hi Mikael - thank youfor sharing this. So glad it was resolved but very frustrating. However, it highlights several things.
1. These companies are a law uinto themselves. If you've followed any of the resports about 'inappropriate' content you can see that they are not at all consistent in their approach.
2. Their refusal to specify exactly what the problem is, is unreadonsble (see 1). There is no 'Big Company' Ombudsman to appeal to when they are unreasonable.
3. From what you say it looks like you were 'reported' by someone who wanted your reviews removed. So the companies act first and only investiagte if the content owner appeals. Guilty until proven innocent!
4. It can be dangerous to put all your eggs in one basket. As affiliate marketers we're stuck with using a few of the big companies. But it pays to diversify as much as possible.
5. Appeals sometimes work. But you can't rely on it.
Thank you for highlighting this. A salutary reminder.
Ian
Some very good points Ian.
I guess they get so many reports every day that a lot of the process is automated. But can be very frustrating as a user.
Especially because there are so many fake positive reviews out there just trying to make a sale. And when you then show the truth you risk getting penalized.
And as you say it does show we are vulnerable, if we only rely on one source.
But in this case luckily the appeals worked.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
There's been a lot of criticism recently about FB's policies and they responded by employing lots of new 'moderators'. The mods, apparently, have about 45 seconds to make a decision on a post.
It's not an automatic process as far as I know although I think there are algorithms designed to detect 'nudity'.
However, I suspect if a post is reported their first and easiest option is simply to unpublish it. That might even be automatic.
We're just pawns in the advertising busines... :-)
Ian
45 seconds is not a long time. Guess the easy solution as you say is to just unpublish. In my case it was however my whole FB page they unpublished and not just a post.
But yeah we are just small fish compared to these big companies.
Yes, often you are not sure why/how the decisions are made. But guess that is a part of having a lot of automated processes when you are such a huge company.
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Thanks for sharing
Have a great day
Tommy
Great day to you as well Tommy