Just a thought, but have you considered legal action?
If no one on HN is able to help, a letter written by a lawyer to Facebook legal might escalate the problem appropriately.
If no one on HN is able to help, a letter written by a lawyer to Facebook legal might escalate the problem appropriately.
I see why people keep mentioning/focusing on "legal action" -- what I should have emphasized is "send a letter", not "bring a case against Facebook".
Contacting legal is a different avenue that could be helpful for finding someone with power to do something about the problem.
I hope you can find the right lawyer with the right tone and touch to make a difference here -- it's both a business and personal issue.
Humans certainly don't change as fast as technology, so it makes sense but still incredibly sad to hear what you and your family are going through. And on top of all that Meta intentionally/unintentionally making it worse.
What a defeatist attitude. This isn't what I expect to find on HN.
We all know it's within FB's rights to refuse service to anyone and the convoluted ToS an policies we all agree to when using online services these days.
IANAL so no idea of there's any chance of that working, I'm just brainstorming.
Actual legal action is a last resort, because if it goes bad everyone loses (especially the young creator, because it could take years).
Good lawyers should be good at that kind of thing.
> Note that I did not say legal action -- I said a letter
Meta has a large legal department full of lawyers who are paid a lot more than whoever you can afford. They are used to dealing with threats and actual lawsuits every day from people, companies and governments all over the world. Your random letter isn't going to scare them into submission. You will simply get back a templatized response along the likes of "We reserve the right to ban anyone from our services. Here is a link to our ToS."
A simple letter does not, in my mind, constitute legal action.
A letter could threaten legal action, but that's explicitly not what I'm suggesting should be done here -- you don't want to attack FB lawyers, you just want a side-channel to a reasonable set of people who are interested in avoiding litigation/bad press, and powerful enough to do something about your problem.
[EDIT] - responding to your edit.
> Meta has a large legal department full of lawyers who are paid a lot more than whoever you can afford. They are used to dealing with threats and actual lawsuits every day from people, companies and governments all over the world. Your random letter isn't going to scare them into submission. You will simply get back a templatized response along the likes of "We reserve the right to ban anyone from our services. Here is a link to our ToS."
They're already getting nowhere with dealing with the current level of automated response/remediation. I have explicitly noted that the point is not to scare the lawyers (everyone seems to be projecting this into my suggestion), but to possibly get the ear of reasonable people with power.
Regardless of what you think will happen, it is an avenue to try, that evidently the OP didn't think of yet.
[EDIT2] - I see now that I wrote "legal action" and it's been interpreted as such. What I meant was to "send a letter" that may be received by someone reasonable with power to fix what is likely a simple moderation mistake. I am not advocating trying to take Meta to court.
Yes, they have very competent lawyers. In fact, the lawyers are so competent they might actually realize "hey this isn't a case of impersonation we can have her account reinstated and avoid even the possibility of a legal hassle".
wut
https://lexlaw.co.uk/letter-before-claim-specialist-solicito...
https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/legal_action
What is it with HN today, full of smarmy people seizing on semantics.
[EDIT] - I see why everyone is, I included the phrase "legal action", and meant to talk separately about sending a letter (not legal action, depending on who you ask). This is what I meant.
I do not mean to sue or open a case against Meta.
Those hundred odd pages probably have specific clauses in there for what constitutes impersonation, repercussions and remediations etc - amongst their internal policies on resolution.
Chances are they've ignored their own legal T&C's for internal policies or "accepted practices" - which will definitely get their legal arm to review a few things.