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Comment by save_ferris | Hacker News Reader

Tangentially related: newly-created Facebook accounts are a whole lot harder to keep up these days if you’re just using them for a single purpose, like following events.

I created an account last year to get more socially involved in my community but I didn’t want to post any personal information and my account kept getting disabled unless I added pictures and filled out certain sections of my profile. Not sure if it was anti-automation technology or what, but I wound up giving up after trying twice because I didn’t want to give them what they asked for.

Knowing that this is required to use a product like Oculus is unacceptable.

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I don't use FB personally, but I needed access to Business Manager for some client work so I created an account using my work email and tried to sign up for BM. They immediately locked the account, asked for a copy of my ID, and then permanently banned that account after I provided it. I have no idea why, there's no mechanism for appeal, and I can't even submit a request to have the image of my ID removed because that form is gated behind the account.

Their "KYC" system has no problem with the 10-year-old alt that I created in college using a fake name which has never done anything but manage some ancient meme pages, though...

> I can't even submit a request to have the image of my ID removed because that form is gated behind the account.

This sounds like the sort of problem GDPR can solve. Are you in the EU, or the UK, or a place with equivalent provisions for allowing people to require business to show them what information they store, edit that info if it is wrong, and delete that info?

Unfortunately not. I've run into so many similar issues lately that I’ve seriously (maybe a little too seriously, if I'm honest) considered temporarily moving to Europe just so I can have access to this.

I have encountered the exact same situation just a few days ago to get a developer account running. I created a new account using my personal phone number and this one hasn't been shut down yet so here's hoping it stays that way.

Ask your client to supply the account. I do that for social media sites since I don't use most of them. Don't actually know about TOS, but it hasn't been a problem and certainly isn't mine.

Facebook is the new catch 22

I had this same experience yesterday. Tried to create a new account and it was insta-locked until I started providing personal information. I hadn't even used it.

twitter did the same thing to me, but worse.

they let me create an account and then locked it and wanted to know my phone number before they would unlock it. I can't even go delete it without giving them personal information.

Google will not allow use of certain features (setting a thumbnail for a YouTube video) without giving your phone number. So it seems mor can play this game.

Yeah, I was contemplating to maybe start a Twitter account, but didn't because of that. They do this pretty much on every account creation after a couple of hours, I guess so that you'd have some time to get on the hook.

I'm kinda used to that and accepted that, apparently, I will never use Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or Google account because of that. Whatever, I don't care. What was really infuriating, though, is when PayPal asked me to enter my phone "to make my account even safer". Fuck them, but having problems with PayPal is quite a bit more annoying than being unable to use some social media bullshit.

I hear that. I have a Google account because I still use some Google services and it isn't tied to any social media nonsense unless you count YouTube.

For twitter I just favorite the few people I want to follow.

Surprisingly my instagram account has no personal information and haven't had any issues but I don't know why.

Google does a variant of that for one of my (rarely used) email accounts. On every day I attempt to log in, they throw a coin. Heads they let me in, tails they don't let me in unless I provide a phone number.

i got the same issue a few weeks ago, account is almost 2 years old yet they decided to lock it (my following count was set to 0 and i could not tweet anymore), with only way to unlock it being giving them my phone number

however, i managed to unlock it somehow, first i sent them a trouble ticket asking why i could not tweet anymore (which immediately got me an email that said my account was locked for "suspicious activity" and that i needed to confirm my identity with phone number), then i requested all the data they had on me through the profile options, waited 3 days for them to do the archive then when i logged back in to download it they would only ask for a recaptcha challenge to unlock my account

perhaps they consider bots unable to request gdpr data ?

Just post right wing and qanon stuff and you should be safe. Half /s

I'm 100% in agreement that a Facebook account shouldn't be required to use an Oculus.

But to continue on your tangent, I'm curious what people expect Facebook to do if they don't collect some amount of identifying information. On one hand they have a huge problem with bots, fake likes, and misinformation accounts, and on the other hand people complain about and avoid the steps they take to prevent those accounts. So, any ideas on the solution?

If you only want to be a consumer with no "visible action", none of those issues with bots or fake likes matter, same with business accounts or accounts solely for Oculus use.

Simple. In my perfect world, Facebook events would be publicly searchable without an account. I wouldn't need to go through the hassle of setting up the account and they wouldn't need to go through the hassle of making sure I was legit or not. But the walled garden's value is predicated on keeping everyone in the silo and not able to access data publicly.

While problems like fake likes and election misinformation are real, that's feels completely orthogonal to me playing VR games. Making me jump through hoops to keep playing a copy of Beat Saber that I already bought is frankly insulting

Why should the public even care?

It’s their business to stay compatible with the society and stay sustainable as a business. If they can’t, they can go.

Disable Shares,Posting, Likes if the account is new or not trusted.

Make it so that a tree in the forest unobserved will fall without a sound.

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