Facebook advisory: Dummy Accounts

Important Customer Alert: Facebook Deactivating Government Profiles

We recognize that many agencies create Dummy Profiles to manage their official Pages. Please be advised that Facebook has been stepping up enforcement of their Terms of Service, which explicitly prohibit the creation and use of Dummy Profiles (otherwise known as “fake Profiles”). These Dummy Profiles include secondary Profiles used for professional purposes and Profiles representing departments or agencies rather than individuals.

This enforcement has led to a sharp increase in Pages being disconnected from Social Media Archive (Formerly ArchiveSocial). Please note that Facebook’s enforcement of this issue is widespread and unrelated to your use of ArchiveSocial. When Facebook flags or removes a dummy Profile, we lose authorization to archive the Pages that are connected through that Profile. We have detected an error on Facebook’s side that allows you to reconnect these Pages to our app using the now non-existent Profile, but the connection then immediately errors and triggers a new disconnect email. We are in contact with Facebook regarding this issue, but you still need to take immediate action to protect your account. Facebook’s enforcement can include the termination of not only the Dummy Profile itself but also any Pages that have a Dummy Profile connected to them.

What Can I Do?

If you are using a Dummy Profile to administer your Facebook Pages, you should immediately add authentic personal Profiles as Page Admins to avoid losing access. These Profiles must represent real people. This is good practice not only in this instance but also as a safeguard to protect access to agency Pages in the event of employee turnover.

Once this is done, we strongly recommend that you transfer ownership of these Pages to a real Profile in your ArchiveSocial archive to prevent loss of data if Facebook does identify and deactivate the Dummy Profile.

To protect your privacy and keep your personal life separate from your professional life, we recommend using Facebook Business Manager/Facebook Business Suite. This allows you to grant admin privileges to coworkers without “friending” them on Facebook. Facebook provides in-depth Business Manager resources here.

What if my Profile has already been shut down?

If you suspect that this has happened to you, first confirm it by attempting to log in to the Dummy Profile. If you are unable to or are asked to confirm your information by submitting a photo or some other identifying information, your Profile has more than likely been flagged. You must work with Meta/Facebook directly to resolve this issue.

If you have any questions, please contact support@archivesocial.com.