Is Your Social Media Account Suspended? What You Can Do

Is your Facebook or Twitter account suspended or locked?

It can happen at any time. All of a sudden, for no logical reason, you find that one of your social network accounts has been blocked.

You feel upset, of course. You lose contact with your friends. But you also lose the means to promote your books or your blog on the suspended account.

What can you do?

The first thing to do is calm down and don’t panic. Take a deep breath and get ready to take steps to get your account suspension lifted.

However, be prepared for it to take a few days.

Let’s first look at why social media platforms suspend accounts and then what you can do to get the account suspension removed.

Why was my social media account suspended?

All social media services are very watchful at the moment.

In particular, Facebook and Twitter are extremely sensitive to user accounts promoting political content after the last US presidential campaign and the subsequent election of Donald Trump.

Both platforms have suspended or closed over a million accounts in the last year or so on the basis of overt or covert political activity or the promotion of hate speech.

If your account was suspended for reasons linked to these topics, or for abusive behavior, there will be little you can do.

The most common reasons

However, the topics above are unlikely to be the reason for 99.9% of everyday social media users.

The most common reason that you have a suspended or locked account will be because of a security issue.

In most cases, it is an automatic system that works to protect your account from suspicious activity such as being hacked or compromised.

Because these systems are automatic, they are not always rational. But they are designed to protect your account and data and prevent other people from accessing your account.

A common reason for these systems to go into action is if you enter your password incorrectly too many times.

Another is aggressive following. If you got a bit carried away and sent too many friend requests on Facebook, or followed a large number of users on Twitter, you could find that your account is blocked.

The safety systems also look at dramatic changes in behaviour and unusual or irregular log in locations.

There can be many reasons why your account is blocked or locked. But you don’t need to create a new account.

Generally, you will be able to regain access to your account by taking the following steps on the platforms listed below.

Unlocking Twitter

Twitter suspends accounts for many reasons.

The most common reason that you get your Twitter account suspended is that you somehow broke one of the infamous Twitter rules.

But it could also be a security issue that thinks your Twitter account has been hacked.

As every Twitter user knows, if you have contacted Twitter in the past, it can be a little frustrating.

However, if you receive an email stating that your account has been blocked, you can usually get your account working again by following the instructions to reset your password.

You can reset locked Twitter accounts by asking for a reset code to be sent to your email address or phone number.

If this method doesn’t work or is unavailable, you will need to appeal an account suspension or locked account by using this form on the Twitter help site.

Expect that it might take a few days to get a response. However, if you have done nothing wrong, you will usually be successful with your appeal.

Contacting Facebook

As a company, Facebook is not easy to contact. There is no general contact form on its site.

You need to start on the Facebook Help page and wade through a lot of questions before you get anywhere near being able to send a message.

But if your account has been disabled, you can go directly to the “My personal Facebook account is disabled” page.

Then scroll down towards the bottom of the page, and you will see the following paragraph.

You need to click on the link marked with the arrow to submit your appeal to Facebook.

Unblocking a LinkedIn Restriction

It can be a bit disconcerting if your Linkedin account is restricted.

You won’t be able to log in to your account, so you can’t access any of the onsite contact forms.

But there is an easy way to proceed.

There is a generic contact form available that you can access without being logged in to your LinkedIn account.

There is also a LinkedIn Help Twitter account you can use.

I had an issue recently with my LinkedIn account, and the response I got from LinkedIn Help was rapid indeed.

I sent a message on LinkedIn Help’s Twitter account and got a reply within 30 minutes.

Of all the social media platforms, LinkedIn is by far the easiest and best to deal with when you have a problem.

Pinterest problems

I must admit that I have never had a problem with Pinterest.

But it looks quite straightforward to make contact and remedy an account suspension.

Go to this Account Suspension page and contact Pinterest if you think your account was suspended in error.

Contacting Google

It is rare to have a problem with your Google accounts, and this is a good thing.

Why? Because it is a long process to be able to contact a human at Google.

You need to start at the Google Contact Us page and then click through a lot of choices and questions before you will perhaps find a contact form.

I can only advise you to take your time, be patient and hopefully, you will be able to make contact and resolve your issue.

Other platforms

If you have a locked account on any other site, the best course of action is to locate a contact form and immediately lodge your appeal.

Some sites make it very easy, while some can be a little frustrating. But there is always a way to contact Help on all platforms.

It might not be easy, but in most cases, a suspension or blocking of your account is to protect your account and your personal data.

Conclusion

If you have a problem with one of your accounts, don’t get too annoyed. Take a deep breath, and when you do make contact with the site’s Help people, be polite and take it easy on them.

They have a bit of a thankless task, but in my experience, most have been efficient and helpful.

Over the years I have had many social media hosting accounts blocked, locked, suspended or disabled. On each occasion, I have been able to recover my accounts successfully.

Sometimes it happened because I was simply careless, sometimes because I didn’t know the rules so it was policy violations and a few times because my account was genuinely under attack by hackers.

So be patient, and all will end well if you take the appropriate steps to recover your account.