15 Years In, Meta's Broken System Finally Came for Me

This process is broken.

For the past week, I’ve been dealing with an extremely frustrating situation with Meta.

My profile was incorrectly flagged for suspicious activity while posting in my private Facebook group. After providing documentation to verify my identity, my account was restricted from group activity.

What makes this so frustrating isn’t only the broken processes that resulted in my restricted account. Even worse, it’s that there’s no clear way to fix it.

Now, it’s entirely possible that my problem will be cleared by the time you hear this. But it doesn’t change the inherent issues my experience has uncovered.

On this episode, I hope to shine a light on this incredibly broken system. I know that I’m not the only one facing a similar situation. While I’m only one person, maybe I can help push the conversation that can help fix it.

So first, let me share exactly what happened.

Last Tuesday, I spotted a new feature in Ads Manager. It’s an AI disclosure checkbox that appears when creating ads. The details of that feature aren’t important here, but I knew it was something that I needed to share with my community.

I’ve hosted a private Facebook group for more than a decade. That group is one of the many benefits of my paid membership.

So, as I’ve done hundreds, if not thousands, of times during the past 13 years, I shared a screenshot of this new feature. I explained what I knew about it so far and published it to the group.

Immediately after publishing, I added a comment with a link to Meta’s official documentation on the feature. And that’s when everything went off the rails.

The comment with the link wasn’t published, and I was given a concerning message. Meta had detected suspicious activity on my profile, and my actions within Facebook groups would be restricted.

To get these privileges back, I’d need to confirm my identity.

As annoying as this was, it’s not completely new. Meta wasn’t saying that anything I was posting was violating rules. But that something about my activity was “suspicious.”

This was on Tuesday, and I had gone on a trip a couple of states over the prior Wednesday to Sunday. I don’t know if it was the post I made or the traveling that were flagged as suspicious.

But I wasn’t particularly concerned yet because I assumed that the verification would be easy. I was instructed to open the mobile app for next steps.

At first, it wasn’t at all obvious what I was supposed to do when I opened the app. I expected an alert or something taking over the screen right away.

I didn’t see anything until I went to a Facebook group to try and do something. That’s when I was instructed to verify my identity.

I was given several options. The one I chose was to take a photo of my driver’s license and upload it.

I followed the instructions related to making sure there was good lighting, no glare, and the entire ID was in view. I clicked to upload and it started spinning.

This appeared to be normal, and the message indicated it could take several minutes. Not ideal, but I made sure not to close the app or do anything to interrupt the upload.

It finally completed about five minutes later, and I was told that the review would take a few more minutes. Presumably, Meta’s systems are scanning my ID to make sure that my profile represents the person I say I am.

And then, a few minutes later, I was informed that verification failed.

No explanation why.

I would not be able to create new groups, request to join groups, or post or comment in groups. And that last part was the biggest problem. I can’t just disappear from the private group that I own and manage.

Most disturbingly, there was no indication of how long this restriction would last or what I could do about it.

What kind of sense does this make?

Meta’s not saying I violated any rules. Only that something in their automated systems flagged my group activity as suspicious. What’s especially weird is that this was isolated to groups, and my profile otherwise doesn’t seem to be impacted.

So that seems to eliminate my recent travel as the reason I was flagged.

My only group activity these days is in that group, sharing helpful information for my members about Meta advertising. That’s truly the only activity that could be flagged, and it was sharing details of Meta’s own features.

How does this make sense? Why would this be suspicious? And why can’t I simply resubmit my ID or try other methods of verification when it failed once?

Because Meta's not saying I violated rules, I shouldn't be considered high risk.

The good news is that this restriction is very tightly isolated to my group activity. It doesn’t impact my pages or ad accounts. But that doesn’t change the potential negative impact it could have on my business.

One week is a huge annoyance, but what if this takes several months to resolve? All because Meta’s systems are broken, and having nothing to do with a mistake or violation I made?

It would be one thing if this were about doing something that violated Meta’s terms. I didn’t do that, and Meta’s not even saying I did.

This whole interruption is just so pointless, and it shines a light on some significant problems right now.

Meta recently laid off more than 6,000 employees with the plan of replacing roles and responsibilities with AI and automation. I have no idea if this specific process was impacted.

And truthfully, Meta has always had a customer support issue related to account suspensions and restrictions. But it would be impossible to ignore how these things could be connected.

The processes of flagging my account and verifying my identity were entirely managed by AI. They both failed spectacularly.

And now, what is my recourse? Wait for weeks or months? Just hope it clears up?

You know what’s not an option?

I can’t just create a new profile to use for the group because, guess what? That violates terms, and I actually care about staying within the rules, ironically.

And while the AI and automations are completely separate from those associated with ad delivery, you have to start wondering.

If Meta’s application of AI and automation is so obviously flawed and broken for flagging suspicious accounts and verifying identification, how are we supposed to trust it related to ad delivery automation? You can’t execute on what should be a rather simple process, but you’ve mastered the complexities of ad delivery and creative?

And you can certainly apply these questions to how Meta handles ad approvals and ad account suspensions. While I know that Meta truly has bad actors that need to be eliminated from the platform, how easy is it to be flagged incorrectly?

Look, I’ll admit to being skeptical of most reports related to ad account suspension. There are so many advertisers violating Meta’s terms without knowing it, it’s easy to claim innocence.

And because I’ve escaped such suspensions for 15 years, I’ve never been personally impacted by an incorrect account ban. Knock on wood that never happens, but this experience certainly opens my eyes.

My problem may even be cleared up by the time this episode airs, but it won’t change how I’ve been impacted.

My trust has been broken.

So here’s the bottom of the glass.

I don’t share this to get your sympathy. I understand that my experience isn’t unique and others are dealing with something similar.

My hope is to draw some attention to these problems to put some pressure on Meta to get it fixed.

Far too many businesses are at the mercy of Meta’s automated processes to protect them and keep them running. When these processes are broken, like they clearly are, huge losses are possible.

Meta needs to focus less time on breaking things and laying off staff in the name of being seen as an AI-first corporation.

You might be AI-first, but you’re also setting a very bad example for how to pull it off.

If you’re not careful, and you certainly aren’t at the moment, you’re going to push away businesses in the process. While my business may be a blip on their radar, I’m one of them.

I’ve had a Facebook profile since 2007. I’ve been running ads and educating advertisers on best practices since 2011.

And I am not immune from this nonsense. No one is.