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Ask HN: Why do various new accounts keep getting blocked?

3 points by jsdevtom ↗ HN
I've recently created a new facebook account as I needed it for facebook ads for my startup. I was never on it before. After placing the ad, I was immediately told, that the company can never post ads again without explanation.

After signing up to Stripe, verifying with my passport and selfies, they told me that the business account will be closed, stating they've "identified a high volume of unauthorized charges on your account". There have been NO charges on that account.

Twitter also blocked my account there shortly after creating it.

Do you have any idea what might be causing this? It feels like because I've had no public profile on the internet ever, I am being penalised for finally having to join to market my business.

14 comments

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mardiyah
said have Twitter but oblivion knowing this?

read theirs there:

The_Real_Fly @The_Real_Fly

Tom Fowdy @Tom_Fowdy

The Sirius Report @thesiriusreport

Garland Nixon @GarlandNixon

MI NEWS @SNMilitary

₦₳V𝚜𝚝é𝚟𝚊 @Navsteva

Georgij Konstantinovič žukov @ILRUSSO1

@Levi_godman More info Telegram : https://t.me/levigodman

they expereinced tenth times, hundreds if not thousand hours blocked, banned, suspended, opposed, etc etc

taubek
I remember reading about new verification systems that (probably) rely to much on automated systems. At least for Facebook ads you should be able to contact some form of support. Take a look at [1] and [2].

Did you use VPN while opening of the accounts?

[1] https://www.eboostconsulting.com/contact-facebook-ads-suppor... [2] https://newsfeed.org/how-to-contact-facebook-ads-support/

jsdevtom
I went out of my way to turn it off before logging on to those sites. I thought it could also be because I religiously remove my cookies.
incomingpain
How much collusion do you expect between those major entities? I expect virtually none. They won't have some folder where they share 'john doe created an account, ban him on your platform'

Do you expect you've been compromised and hackers are screwing with you? I doubt it.

Flipside, what does make sense? You're on a list. Your government is the one who has decided you cannot have those accounts.

jsdevtom
I really have no idea what could even make sense. The cause I consider most likely is that they have a bias toward blocking new accounts, and only if you do display certain behaviours, will they not block you.
incomingpain
>I really have no idea what could even make sense. The cause I consider most likely is that they have a bias toward blocking new accounts, and only if you do display certain behaviours, will they not block you.

No, if twitter just blocked all new accounts they'd be out of business very rapidly.

Twitter isn't actively talking to facebook about content moderation.

You're definitely on a list. Don't worry, practically everyone on HN is on a list or 2.

evgen
If you want to know why you are facing these problems please answer this simple question:

How is anyone at these major service providers supposed to distinguish between your claimed legitimate use and a fly by night spammer churning through disposable fake identities?

As you noted, you have no history or reputation. Nothing. The rest of us will gladly increase the cost of entry for you without any concern if it increases the cost for bad actors who are attempting to parasitise the system.

jsdevtom
What about young people who are new to the internet? Should we increase the cost of entry (or just flat out ban it) for them too for their lack of online reputation?
EddieDante
Allowing young people new to the internet to get hooked on platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, TikTok, etc. does them no favors.
evgen
Those young people have absolutely no problem getting online and building enough presence to accomplish objectives. Maybe the questions you need to start asking are what makes you different from them or what are you doing that makes you seem downright sketch to all of these services. You are actively doing something that is making you appear untrustworthy or bucketing you in with the spammers. Figure out what that is and stop doing it.
ffhhj
Spam/scam bot farms exploit residential IP addresses. If that ever happened to me I'd backup/wipe out/turn off and then store all my devices, switch to another Internet provider/phone company, buy new devices, and create new accounts on them, then sell the old devices making sure the new accounts are never linked to these. If possible I'd move to a new place in between step 1 and 2 just to make sure. That's actually my escape plan if Google ever locks me out, they do location tracking.