Have you opened your Facebook account just to realize you could not see or share posts, like comments or pages, as well as send messages or add new friends?
If this happens, chances are your account has been restricted or even disabled.
Why Does My Facebook Say Restricted? Facebook Community Standards, Terms Violated
This means you could not access essential features on the social media site that is equivalent to a temporary ban. Such restrictions are imposed if you've violated Facebook's Community Standards.
A warning is given on the first offense; however, repeated violations would result in a restriction.
In using Facebook, according to The U.S. Sun, you need to follow certain rules, which are categorized into:
- Violence and criminal behavior
- Safety
- Objectionable content
- Integrity and authenticity
- Respecting intellectual property
- Content-related requests and decisions
More specifically, Facebook stated in its Disabled Accounts FAQs that it also restricts accounts that do not follow the Facebook Terms, such as:
- Posting content that doesn't follow the Facebook Terms
- Using a fake name
- Impersonating someone
- Continuing behavior that's not allowed on Facebook and goes against our Community Standards
- Contacting other people for the purpose of harassment, advertising, promoting, or conduct that's not allowed
- Infringing or violating someone else's rights, including intellectual property rights
Checking these rules, you may have to review all your past actions on the site. You may have been banned for posting copyrighted material, engaging illicit activities online, or even share posts promoting violence. Being wide-reaching and extensive, you may not even realize have made such violations.
Facebook emphasized that such restrictions would depend on the severity of the violation of its Community Standards. It would check on the frequency of the user's infringement, as a continuing violation would warrant restrictions to post on Facebook or disable their profile.
How to Appeal a Facebook Account Restriction
If you feel you've been inadvertently restricted, you can file an appeal to Facebook to lift the restriction.
This appeal process starts when you receive a notification when you attempt to login that your account has been restricted or disabled. Using a Facebook page to submit an appeal, you need to first provide your login details such as login email address or mobile phone number, your full name and a screenshot of a valid ID to be uploaded. The last field in the form, "Additional Info," would appear optional but it's advisable to state your appeal there. After you submit the form, Facebook will assure you that it will investigate the matter.
The system won't mention how long it will consider your appeal or when a decision will be made, but it is natural to expect a response from Facebook through Messenger hours or days after submitting the appeal. And, if Facebook realizes that it mistakenly disabled your account, it would reinstate it right away.
For those accounts Facebook scrutinizes as severe cases of violations, Facebook said in its FAQs for Disabled Accounts that it can't restore those accounts.
