Professionals and agencies are encountering an increasing number of cases related to account hacking on Facebook and Instagram. This is causing companies, influencers, and anonymous users to demand more assistance from social media platforms.
A Facebook source admits that the company is operating at 40% of its response capacity for these cases.
Covid-19 and lockdown measures triggered a surge in social media use among users in 2020. The State of Alarm completely changed digital consumption. A study by the company Sandvine states that social networks, online video games, and video streaming platforms accounted for 80% of global traffic.
However, this notable increase in social media usage has also led to a rise in the volume of inquiries from Facebook and Instagram users who are encountering problems with their profiles: from account hacking and the resulting access issues to posts on their profiles that they do not recognize making.
Other situations we encounter include reactions to certain posts in their name, identity theft issues (especially on Instagram), cyberbullying, phishing, etc.
Solutions for account hacking on Facebook and Instagram are insufficient and, at times, ineffective or even non-existent.
The increase in inquiries has reached such a point that this week Facebook admitted it cannot keep up and is at a 40% service level in responding to incidents occurring on its social network.
Countries suffering the most from account hacking: USA, Brazil, and Spain.
It is well known that contacting social media platforms is by no means easy. Unfortunately, they do not offer a direct communication method with the company’s customer service or support.
This same source admitted that the countries with the most affected user help services are the USA, Brazil, and Spain.
Influencers and companies with fewer than one million followers are the most affected by cyberattacks and hacking on Facebook.
The problem is being exacerbated by situations where a crime has been committed and where receiving a rapid response from the company is essential. There are ongoing instances of user neglect, such as in the case of celebrities or companies with fewer than a million followers. The social network does not consider these users as “top” profiles. Despite suffering the consequences of account hacking firsthand, the platforms do not treat these types of cases with urgency.
Most users who have suffered a hack on Facebook are recoverable. However, users with deactivated or blocked accounts cannot opt for such luck.
Cyberbullying and identity theft are two situations on Facebook and Instagram that influencers face more often than we can imagine. In most cases, they find themselves alone due to the ineffective response from social media platforms.
It remains to be seen how long this backlog in help services for companies and users will last, but sooner rather than later Mark Zuckerberg’s company should seriously reflect on the need to scale these services as the user community of its platforms grows… if it does not want to see them eventually tire and permanently close their profiles on Facebook and Instagram.