D is for Diversion - from Normal Programming

A mate has recently been shut-down on Facebook, it happened to me a while ago (last autumn, and seems to be happening to everyone, over time....so it may well happen to you if you're on Facebook and it hasn't happened yet.

They (Facebook) lock you out of your page (while sending you all the normal updates and notifications!) and demand 'Government ID' before they let you back on.

Sometimes it seems to be random, sometimes it's because someone has reported you or your Facebook page - that's what happened to me, I was fighting a neo-Nazi site (which proves last months Troll to be the hopelessly ignorant, misguided look-at-me type he/she is!), and they fought back by getting us all closed down temporarily.

There is a site which will give you more information (ghacks.nett), but you'll have to wade through some mindless drivel from the 'conspiracy theorists' (to be honest, I'd ban some of them!).

I dealt with the situation by finding a couple of emails for senior Facebook executives (Google has it uses) and then sending the following eMail to them...

Dear Madam 

With reference to your demands for my personal information; 

1) I believe the information you are asking for is not to be given to you under UK data-protection legislation without good reason. As I hold a Facebook page under the name I was born with, the name I use to register most of my Internet accounts/memberships with; the fact that you're telling me my name is 'not allowed' is NOT (in my own opinion) a good enough reason for me to pass private information or images of private documents to you, without more assurances than the vague claim of subsequent destruction you make.

2) I believe this matter is either down to; A) the attempts myself and several others were making for the last few weeks to get the fascist National British Resistance sites of Mr. Joshua Bonehill shut down…something you were as reticent to do as you have proved with to be with Jihadist or animal torture sites like dog-fighting, or; B) an attempt to obtain - BY DECEPTION - information you can then use for commercial gain.

3) You already obtain commercial gain from me by the advertising you place in front of me, and on my timeline as viewed by others. There was no problem with my name when I registered or for the subsequent 13 months I have been using your service?

4) Therefore I have to assume there is no REAL problem with my account at all, but rather a manufactured one for either of the points in 2 - above. As you have floated yourselves on the market, your need for users (of your service) is greater than my need for Facebook, which I resisted for years, only joined to stop a few friends whinging and find to have some poor interfaces and a less than clear structure/format vis-à-vis settings. It is also cripplingly heavy on data-use for someone like me with a pay-as-you-go dongle.

5) Please either unblock my page ([Redacted]) OR send me an eMail detailing the specific problem you have with the name I use, which I was born with and which I also use on Blogger, Google+ and Amazon OR return all my images and original copy, and close my account, providing evidence of its having been closed.

6) If you chose the last option in 5) above, please accept fair warning that following the deletion of my page, by you, any and all subsequent notifications, requests or advertisements by you, your agents or nominated representatives, by electronic or traditional mail, text or in person toward or directly aimed at me will be considered further-harassment and invoiced by me to your London Office at £100 damages per action/incident, to be recovered - in the event you fail to pay the invoices by the due date/s - in the UK's County Court service via the fast-track, small claims facility.

7) I retain the right to republish this image, or a text version of the words upon it as and where I see fit.

In the redacted section I placed my [Facebook] name, date of birth, place of birth, National Insurance and Passport number etc...no documents or pictures/scans of documents were provided.

I sent this over the weekend and was back on Facebook (for better or worse!) by the time I got out of bed Monday! feel free to use this text if it happens to you, but I would suggest rewriting it to better reflect your own 'voice'.

the subsequent email from Facebook made no reference to my eMails, just spoke of a 'Technical Fault'...the truth is probably that it's got something to do with the dodgy relationship between Facebook and the US security apparatus and their collective paranoia about terrorism, activism and all the other chickens that are coming home to roost after a century of corporate capital raping the planet, and our governments three-faced machinations in the the Middle East.

But...whatever the reason, no one should be sending private information, or government documents to a corporation listed on the stock markets!

So ends today's Public Information newsletter!