How to Avoid Getting Permanently Banned From Facebook

Back in 2021, we found out just how commonplace it was for Facebook to ban accounts. In just three months from October to December 2020, 1.3 BILLION accounts were banned from Facebook because of what Meta described as “false” and “harmful” content. 

And that doesn’t take into consideration any account banning that happened for other reasons, including abusive behavior, spamming other users, or violating the Community Standards in some other way.

Because it’s possible for Facebook to permanently ban you, let’s take a look at what you should avoid doing if you want to prevent a lifetime ban from the platform!

How Facebook Bans, Blocks, and Restricts Users

Not every “ban” from Facebook is permanent. Meta has a number of options at their disposal for how to handle content and accounts that they determine have violated their policies. 

Facebook documents most violations as a “strike” against your account. Here’s what Facebook does based on these strikes: 

• 1 strike: Nothing bad happens with 1 strike, but you will get a warning. 
• 2-6 strikes: They will block you from some features for a set amount of time. Often, this limits you from posting in groups. 
• 7 strikes: This leads to a 1-day restriction from all content creation, including: making posts, commenting on content, creating pages, etc.
• 8 strikes: At this stage, your account will be restricted from creating content for 3 days.
• 9 strikes: This last stage before a permanent restriction is a 7-day restriction from content creation

What Counts as a Community Standards Violation?

Facebook has extensive Community Standards.

Repeatedly violating these standards is the fastest way to get banned from Facebook. There are several categories of off-limit comments, posts, and content:

• Violence and Criminal Behavior (including but not limited to inciting violence, coordinating harm, promoting crime, committing fraud, selling restricted goods and services)
• Safety issues (including but not limited to suicide, self-injury; crimes against children like sexual exploitation, abuse, and nudity; adult sexual exploitation; bullying and harassment; privacy violations, and other forms of human exploitation)
• Objectionable content (hate speech, violent and graphic content, adult nudity and sexual activity, and sexual solicitation)
• Integrity and Authenticity concerns (spam, cybersecurity, inauthentic behavior, misinformation, and memorialization of deceased account users) 
• Intellectual Property violations

Where do Community Standards violations occur?

You can get a Community Standards violation from original posts that you make, comments that you leave on other posts, activities in Facebook groups, and advertisements that you post. 

Generally, simply sharing a post from another user that is later determined to have violated Meta’s Community Standards is not cause for your own violation. However, some serious violations may affect your account immediately. 

What Serious Violations Can Get You Banned?

Some infractions may lead to more severe penalties. For example, Meta has a policy on dangerous individuals and organizations.

In an effort to prevent and disrupt real-world harm, we do not allow organizations or individuals that proclaim a violent mission or are engaged in violence to have a presence on Facebook. We assess these entities based on their behavior both online and offline, most significantly, their ties to violence. Under this policy, we designate individuals, organizations, and networks of people. These designations are divided into three tiers that indicate the level of content enforcement, with Tier 1 resulting in the most extensive enforcement because we believe these entities have the most direct ties to offline harm.

Violations for adult sexual exploitation are another cause for escalated account restrictions.

Facebook explains:

In an effort to create space for this conversation and promote a safe environment, we allow victims to share their experiences, but remove content that depicts, threatens or promotes sexual violence, sexual assault, or sexual exploitation. We also remove content that displays, advocates for or coordinates sexual acts with non-consenting parties to avoid facilitating non-consensual sexual acts.

Ahead of a permanent ban, they may limit you for a longer period of time, prevent you from using Facebook Live, or prohibit you from creating new ads – even for a first offense.

How to Avoid Going to “Facebook Jail”

Have you heard references to people being “thrown in Facebook Jail?”

Facebook Jail is just an unofficial name for getting slapped with one of those strikes that is associated with a restriction on your account. 

There are 2 kinds of Facebook Jail:

1. A temporary restriction with a maximum period of 21 days
2. A permanent ban from Facebook, in which they permanently delete your account and you will never be able to access it again

Here are the best ways to avoid going to Facebook Jail:

1. Never create any content that promotes violence, criminal behavior, or hate speech of any kind
2. Avoid creating content that promotes misinformation 
3. Avoid spamming people by making constant posts, sending out incessant friend requests to strangers, or tagging people all the time
4. Don’t bully or harass other users
5. Don’t use a fake name for your account

Can my Facebook page get restricted?

So far, we’ve been talking about personal accounts–but what about professional pages?

There are several types of Facebook pages, other than just personal pages. These pages are for businesses, creators, public figures, organizations, non-profit organizations, politicians, and local shops and stores.

These kinds of pages can be affected by the same kinds of violations and restrictions as personal ones. 

How to avoid getting your Facebook page restricted

In general, the advice for protecting your page from violations penalties is similar to personal accounts. You want to avoid violent content, bullying, misinformation, spamming, or harassment. 

Most importantly, you have to avoid anything that Facebook would consider to be spam or inauthentic content. 

Here are 4 tips to avoid a restriction on the Facebook page you run for a business, organization, creator, public figure, etc:

1. Create your own original content and credit anyone whose work you share.

Plagiarism is a problem on Facebook, and they have been trying to crack down on the problem. You may be able to get away with plagiarized content–but only if you are willing to be unethical and willing to risk Facebook banning you because of it. 

For information about Meta’s approach to plagiarism, check out their info page on Intellectual Property. 

2. Don’t frequently post the same content to multiple pages.

This can be a red flag for Facebook’s bots, who will perceive the behavior as spammy. If you need to post the same information to multiple pages, be sure to put some time between the posts. 

3. Don’t randomly tag a bunch of people or send follow requests in bulk.

This is both spammy AND it makes your page look bad. People are unlikely to follow or interact with pages that randomly tag them or send them requests. You also run the risk of people reporting you as spam. Too many spam reports can equate to strikes against your account. 

4. Avoid looking like a bot. 

Inauthentic bot accounts will like and respond to posts in a ridiculously fast manner. If you frantically respond to posts and comment on them, that can make YOU look like a bot. Facebook could take action against your account for this kind of activity.

The Two Things You Have to Do to Avoid Getting Banned from Facebook

If you really want to avoid Facebook banning you, there are just two things you have to do. 

First, you have to know the rules and abide by them. Content that violates the Community Standards may not always get reported and noticed, but it is always a risk. 

Second, pay attention to any warnings that you get. If you find yourself receiving violations, warnings, or temporary restrictions to your account, take note of them–and adjust your behavior. 

Even if you don’t like it, Meta doesn’t really change its mind once it has made a decision. If you want to maintain access to your account, you’ll have to follow their rules.