Locked out of Facebook, musician struggles to get account restored

Lucas Choi Zimbel joined Facebook 10 years ago for one reason: to find work. 

"I'm not a person who uses Facebook for personal things," said the 32-year-old, Montreal-based musician. "I don't post pictures of cats, or news about my social life. I only use it for my job."

So when the social network disabled his account in September after he was hacked — his profile picture was replaced by the flag of the terrorist group ISIS — Zimbel was desperate to get the problem sorted out quickly, in order to earn a living.

He says he made multiple attempts to communicate with Facebook, without success.

Zimbel says that, like a lot of musicians, he uses Facebook to promote performances and get bookings. He's also been hired for recordings and music videos, thanks to producers and other musicians contacting him via its Messenger service. 

But when he tried to reach the company to have his profile reinstated, he discovered that there's no support line to call, or even an email address where users can report a problem. Companies that pay to advertise on Facebook are able to get prompt attention when needed, but Zimbel said regular users who pay nothing are left high and dry.

"I've lost work, but I have no way of knowing how much or what work I've lost," he told Go Public, noting that he's eager to book engagements as restrictions related to the pandemic are eased. 

"The music scene is coming back and I just have no way of getting on that train."

Zimbel isn't alone in his predicament. Thousands of small business owners rely on Facebook, a reality that came into sharp focus in early October when it, and its sister networks WhatsApp and Instagram, went offline in North America for six hours.

Entrepreneurs who use social media to reach customers said the outage cost them thousands of dollars in revenue.

Claire Tsai, a marketing professor at the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Business, says it's risky to depend exclusively on one social media platform. 

"It's like putting all your eggs in one basket," she said. "It's better to be on a large number of social media platforms, including Twitter and TikTok. You want to diversify."

Tsai said she understands that small business owners are eager for the kind of low-cost marketing they can accomplish through a free platform such as Facebook, but says it's not a "reliable" resource.  

"The company could make changes that would affect small business owners," she said. "If you're paying, you have the right to demand what you're paying for; otherwise you're vulnerable."