When your Facebook account is hacked, it can be extremely difficult to regain control. However, the company can also decide to permanently delete your profile altogether even if you’ve done nothing wrong.

Facebook gives every hacking victim a 30-day window to file an appeal. This entails sending the company proof of identification and details about why the account should be reinstated. However, there’s no guarantee that Facebook will believe the reason, or even respond at all. Multiple hacking victims allege that the 30-day window has passed without hearing anything from the company, leading to all their posts and memories being deleted forever.

“It is wrong to take away people’s access to their social network when they’ve done everything right and only got hacked,” one victim said. “And whenever you post about this issue on social media, you are swarmed in the comments by spambots hawking dubious services to help you get your accounts back… This is definitely a symptom of Meta having too much corporate power and a reminder that it needs to be broken up. I hope American elected officials do the right thing and take a big step to limit the power such companies have over our lives.”

Of course, this isn’t a universal experience for hacked users, and some are able to eventually regain their accounts. But the issue is widespread enough that it’s clear Facebook should be taking it much more seriously.

As an extra layer of protection, we recommend users enable two-factor authentication on their Facebook account.

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