Yesterday Facebook deleted the fan page I had created for The Sex Positive Photo Project. And the 700 fans which I had s-l-o-w-l-y gathered over time were just gone *poof*.
I cry foul.
Here is the generic email they sent me:
...You created a Page that has violated our Terms of Use. A Facebook Page is a distinct presence used solely for business or promotional purposes. Among other things, Pages that are hateful, threatening, or obscene are not allowed. We also take down Pages that attack an individual or group, or that are set up by an unauthorized individual. If your Page was removed for any of the above reasons, it will not be reinstated...
So, the first part of that notice says that a Facebook Page is to be used solely for business or promotional uses. Check. My page was a promotional page for this photo project. But, for the life of me I can't figure out the business or promotional use of this facebook page: "I hate receiving text messages from Tiger Woods at 3am asking for sex".
Next, Facebook says that Pages cannot be hateful, check. Mine was not hateful. These Pages, however, are pretty solidly in the running for hateful: I hate when girls do/say stupid things for attention, I Hate Justin Bieber, and I Hate Dumb Bitches.
Threatening? Nope, not my page. But this one is hateful, threatening and pretty much obscene, if you ask me (they have some pics at their fan page depicting graphic violence.)
I get it that some of these pages are just "fun". I know that people create random pages all the time just to see how many people will "like" them. And I couldn't have cared less about all that until I was singled out and inexplicably had my page deleted. So far, I have not been able to locate a way to actually reach Facebook to ask for some answers. At this point I really don't care to even have a Facebook account.
So, was my page obscene? No. Did it have the word "sex" in the title? Yes. Is that obscene? No, but Facebook might have thought so. The thing is, I don't know what Facebook thought, because they don't provide any specific information, they just delete and that's it. I know that I didn't have any photos that were obscene, so I can't imagine what was the problem other than the word "sex". I didn't even let people post things on the wall, to make sure that I was in control of all the content. I wonder, if I had called the page "The S+ Photo Project" perhaps it would not have been deleted?
I'm frustrated because I was using the Facebook page as a good networking resource, it was my own happy little corner of Facebook... and now it's just gone. I cry foul.
