Question from Karan F.: Hi Rick. I hope you can help me. I have a close friend who finally got around to creating a Facebook account after much prodding from me and a couple of her other friends. We exchanged several messages a few nights ago, then I logged off and went to bed.
When I logged back into Facebook the next day, I opened our previous conversation and tried messaging her again. I couldn’t. The previous messages were still there, but her name was in black. I tried clicking on her name so I could message her from her profile page, but it wouldn’t click.
Finally, in desperation I searched for her name in the search box and it said it couldn’t find her account. I called her to ask what was going on and she said she didn’t know but she couldn’t log in. Sorry, I know this is long but I really need to find out what’s going on? Do you have any clue as to what might have happened?
Rick’s answer: Karan, it sounds like Facebook has suspended your friend’s account. The most common reasons for getting an account suspended are for either sending too many friend requests within a given time frame or sending friend requests to people who decline the request and then give Facebook feedback stating that they do not know the person that sent the request.
I doubt if friend requests had anything to do with your friend’s suspension however since problem friend requests usually net several warnings before the account is suspended. My guess is your friend did something on Facebook that is highly disliked by the company. What that might be is anyone’s guess, but it must have been something very serious in the eyes of the “Facebook police”.
I would suggest asking your friend what she did on Facebook during the short time that her account was active, and if you discover that she was doing something dubious tell her not to do it again. Then have her to try opening a new account. I’m afraid that’s really all you (and she) can do.
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