Oculus / Facebook Cautionary Tale

[PieEater]

I preordered a Quest 2 a week ago and thought I'd get my Facebook account ready. Full disclosure I set up an account years ago but never used it as I'm not into social media and couldn't remember my credentials. I registered with a new email address and set up the account ready and within an hour Facebook had disabled my account. There is no way to contact Facebook to ask them to reactivate your account other than their forms which don't allow you to explain the situation only give your name and upload a form of ID which I did. 2 days later I tried logging back on and found a message that my account had been permanently disabled and that this was irreversible. There was no explanation only that I had apparently broken one of a series of rules the only one that I could see applied to me was regarding multiple accounts not being allowed. Again there is no way to contact Facebook directly and without an account you can't access the support forums for help.

I was so frustrated that I even contacted Oculus support who bizarrely told me to set up a new Facebook account, so I had to tell them that was against the rules and was why I believed I was in this position. They then told me to use the Facebook support forums which again is not an option.They were unable to give me any other support. So I've had to cancel my order.

I just wanted to make forum members aware that if they do buy into the Oculus / Facebook infrastructure there is a danger that they may end up not being able to use their devices and not have any way to regain access. This is a totally ridiculous situation and something I have decided I can't ever support even if I was able to. Buyer beware.

 

[andy_mk3]

Yes this has been all over Reddit. Oculus blaming Facebook and vice versa, despite being the same damn company.

It's one of the many reasons I'm buying a HP G2 instead.

 

[melmac]

Ok, sorry to hear that. The reason this happens is because you tried to create another account with most of the same details as an account that already existed. If you didn't remember your credentials you should have contacted Facebook support first.

For other forum users reading this thread. If you had a Facebook account and deleted it, before you setup a new account make sure your old one was actually deleted. Sometimes people think they are deleting it but have only deactivated it. So when they created a new account and use most of the same info they have used in their old account, it's instantly red flagged.

If you are creating a fake account, make sure there are no details in common with your other account. If you know somebody on facebook that's not friends with you on any other Facebook account, contact them beforehand and ask them to add your fake account as a friend and post something on your wall as soon as possible. Like within an hour.

@PieEater Just out of curiosity were you using a VPN when you created your account?

 

[PieEater]

@melmac No I wasn't using a VPN.

Regarding setting up a fake account for use with an Oculus device if this ever does get disabled you have no chance of recovering it as Facebook wants photo ID as part of the request. If they can tie the fake account back to your account you can wave goodbye to that too.

Regarding contacting Facebook for support this can only be done via predefined forms which don't give you any option to add additional information to support your request. This really isn't customer support as you have no dialogue with anyone.

 

[hyperseven]

Think I'll use my dogs Facebook account, he never says any bad or controversial so little chance of it getting banned.

 

[Unseul]

See, a lot of the people saying they've been banned, do seem to have similar stories. Creating multiple accounts (even if it's an old one they hadn't used in ages etc), creating a fake profile etc.

Have you tried recovering your original account? That would seem like the more sensible one to try and recover?

 

[NightSt@lk3r]

Had a Facebook account for 13 years, never had an issue.

 

[PieEater]

Have you tried recovering your original account? That would seem like the more sensible one to try and recover?

They have linked the new account to the old account so both are permanently disabled, so that's not an option.

 

[Ravenger]

There has been some new information coming in that Facebook could be implementing a 'firewalled' Facebook account just for Quest, that's essentially a cut-down account only for VR (They could call it an 'Oculus account' ). If true this may give a way in for those banned from Facebook or those like me who don't want a full Facebook social media account.

This is an unverified report though.

BUT, this issue of people being unable to get back onto Facebook and being banned permanently with no chance of appeal is currently a huge issue, and unless Facebook does something like firewalled accounts then they're going to get a lot of bad publicity when Quest 2 releases, and then they'll be forced to act anyway.

 

[PieEater]

Had a Facebook account for 13 years, never had an issue.

Good for you, I'm sure the majority of people will be exactly the same, but if Facebook decide for whatever reason they don't like something you've done you potentially will permanently loose your ability to use any Oculus device you may own. Chances are it will never happen but it can.

 

[Ravenger]

What's worse is on Reddit the first instinct of some users is to blame the victim, saying 'You must have done something really bad to be banned' or 'If you'd stop posting hate speech then you wouldn't have got banned', or even to accuse them of lying.

Most people don't realise how Facebook accounts work and it's very easy right now to trigger their algorithms into banning you (these seem to have been ramped up for the US elections), and they make it almost impossible to reverse bans, even if your case is justified.

 

[Dano]

Had a Facebook account for 13 years, never had an issue.

I've had a facebook account for well over a decade without issue too but that's not the point is it.

If I am at their mercy when it comes to the functionality of my hardware (and it is mine, purchased and paid for) then they need to have in place the relevant systems to make sure I can use it regardless of what happens to an unrelated social media account that they have arbitrarily decided must be used with it. I suspect it wont be long before there will be a class action against it in the USA and I can't see the EU or the UK courts being very happy with people having their purchased goods turned into expensive paperweights.

 

[tangey]

For sure the vast majority of FB users won't have a problem. But whos to say they don't introduce a rule that you suddenly fall foul off.
No political posts
No images beyond 500K in size
To pick the first things that comes into my head.
And you don't realise that 3 years ago you posted something about trump or a big picture, and now your account is dead and your quest2 too.

Or what if they decide this time next year that all facebook accounts have to be partially/fully shared ? It's facebook, it's free, so they can decide what they want....but you don't want to do that.

 

[Unseul]

For sure the vast majority of FB users won't have a problem. But whos to say they don't introduce a rule that you suddenly fall foul off.
No political posts
No images beyond 500K in size
To pick the first things that comes into my head.
And you don't realise that 3 years ago you posted something about trump or a big picture, and now your account is dead and your quest2 too.

Because that will kill their platform? Right now there's some issues but you're talking one in a thousand. They aren't going to do anything that loses them one in ten.

 

[tangey]

Because that will kill their platform? Right now there's some issues but you're talking one in a thousand. They aren't going to do anything that loses them one in ten.

I have no idea what they will or will not do. Who thought a year ago they would be flagging up untrue political video, or deep fake stuff.
They could make a commercial decision that they deem best in which losing 10% (for example) of their userbase is dialed into the decision.

They have afterall made a commercial decision to force oculus headset owners to have facebook accounts, which not many foresaw when they got into the VR headset market. One assumes they know that they have automatically excluded those with a banned account as being a possible customer, and they know that some potential customers will not buy because of the facebook requirement. All commercial decisions, none of which really bothers most people, until some day they make a commercial decision that DOES bother you.


Update...sorry I have a habit of editing after posting, which makes it look like a follow-up only partial quoted me, when they did not.

 

[Unseul]

I have no idea what they will or will not do. Who thought a year ago they would be flagging up untrue political video, or deep fake stuff.
They could make a commercial decision that they deem best in which losing 10% (for example) of their userbase is dialed into the decision.

Flagged. Not banned account.

Common factors in a lot of bannings are old and unused, duplicate, fake or brand new with no details/friends/posts etc. All account types that Facebook as a business loses very little from banning.

Someone who constantly ****fights etc but doesn't go into extremist rhetoric is exactly what Facebook want. Lots of ads to show them and their friends. Facebook will be very slow to implement anything that effects users who spenda good amount of time on Facebook.

 

[krooton]

For sure the vast majority of FB users won't have a problem. But whos to say they don't introduce a rule that you suddenly fall foul off.
No political posts
No images beyond 500K in size
To pick the first things that comes into my head.
And you don't realise that 3 years ago you posted something about trump or a big picture, and now your account is dead and your quest2 too.

Or what if they decide this time next year that all facebook accounts have to be partially/fully shared ? It's facebook, it's free, so they can decide what they want....but you don't want to do that.

Can they apply new rules retrospectively though?

I can't even access everything I've ever posted given how poor the search/history function is, so realistically if they did add new rules, they should have any offending content just deleted from your profile, rather than ban your account.

 

[tangey]

Flagged. Not banned account.

I was talking commercial decision that some users might not like. I guess some might not like facebook making such judgement calls, and not use facebook for that reason, but facebook have made the call knowing they'll lose some customers.

The point is facebook can change the rules, which is fine until they make a change that either inadvertently gets your account banned, or you don't like it and you remove yourself. But now your headset is dead.

 

[tangey]

Can they apply new rules retrospectively though?

I can't even access everything I've ever posted given how poor the search/history function is, so realistically if they did add new rules, they should have any offending content just deleted from your profile, rather than ban your account.

It's their puppy, you haven't paid, they can do what they like?, can't they ?

Frankly I'm not even sure why I'm putting this case, I don't see it ever affecting me, but I do see the potential issue down the road....and the precedent that it sets.

 

[Ravenger]

The thing is that currently Facebook isn't really banning your account from their system - they're banning YOU, and won't allow you ever back on their platform. If Facebook really do end up owning the VR Metaverse then a ban could prevent you from socialising, playing or even working in that space - it could be a big disadvantage.

I really hope Facebook sorts this out for the Quest 2 launch because there's been a steady trickle of cancelled pre-orders due to this banning issue, and there will be lots of returns or chargebacks if more than a few people are unable to use hardware they have legally bought.