Observer Cautionary Tale: Facebook Useful, But Unreliable

Overnight Feb. 9, a hacker attacked and took over the Anderson Observer Facebook page, and personal Greg Wilson page associated with it.

The Anderson Observer website is a separate, stand-alone, paid entity, and not effected. 

Despite having two-factor authentication, the hacker took over the page, changed passwords and posted potential terrorist posts. Facebook shut the site down and asked me to provide identification to proof my site had been taken over, despite clear records on their end that someone had heisted the site.  

I have provided all the verification requested, but after talking to others, particularly businesses, which have faced this issue with Facebook, it is unlikely these pages will be restored.  

The result is, those pages, which had been running for 20 years, are likely lost. So, I am starting over. If you get a friend request or request to like the Anderson Observer Facebook page, it is likely legitimate, though feel free to email gwilson@andersonobserver.com if it looks suspicious.

The new Observer Facebook page can be found here (and is linked off of the Anderson Observer website): https://www.facebook.com/TheAndersonObserver

I am sharing this both to rebuild the social media sites and as a warning: Facebook, and their parent company Meta, own your Facebook pages and can shut them down with impunity and almost no paths to restoration.  

Here are a few suggestions, to help to blunt this fact:

1.     Download your data. You can download all of your Facebook data as a backup. Details here. https://www.facebook.com/help/212802592074644

2.     Change passwords often, at least twice per year, and use a random password generator. Try to avoid using the same password for more than one login. This is a pain, but a password wallet app, there are many can help. This suggestion is not only true for Facebook.

3.     Sign up for alerts on unrecognized logins. This is unlikely to help if the alert comes at 3 a.m. https://www.facebook.com/help/162968940433354?helpref=faq_content

4.     Use two-factor authentication. It is one tool, although it failed me.

5.     Finally, and most importantly, it is a poor decision to run a business on Facebook without an independent website. Stories abound of businesses destroyed after losing access to their Facebook business pages, and they have little recourse.

Facebook is “free,” which should make us all ponder how they provide a service to billions without charging. Think of it as a bulletin board in someone else’s place of business, one which allows you to post things, but which has the option to pull anything down at any time for any reason. It’s a useful tool, but one which cannot be relied upon to have your best interests at heart.