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UPDATE!

At around 12:20pm, after hours of trying anything I could, the Desktop version of Facebook Web's Meta AI Support asked me to upload a video selfie. Then it asked me when the issue began, and as soon as I said around 7am this morning, their AI was like "Ah ha!" -- It asked me for my alternate email address, which I provided, and as soon as I clicked a link in that email, I started getting email about Pages being republished, access to Marketplace being restored, etc.

Now: Can I even prevent this from happening in future? How can I make sure everyone has my blog url (or phone number) so they can contact me even if I lose contact with them?

Thank you for your support and concern, despite however dumb my comments in 2009 were. LOL.

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So the solution was to do the same thing that the hackers did??

> "tell the Meta support AI that the account is hacked and ask it to send the verification codes to an arbitrary email address they control"

I agree it seems like they could later use the same flow to get access again but maybe Meta has blocked some location spoofing now

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You've gotta leverage your network and find friends you know who work at Meta/IG. I was able to get my account back without asking friends at IG (because mine wasn't fully disabled just password changed), but people I know who lost their accounts have had to ask multiple people very up the chain at IG to do some special restoration.
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no idea about your account but i would suggest getting email + other accounts for all of your acquaintances asap lmao
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There is nothing to do. Game over.

You must rebuild your contacts via some alternative medium of communication.

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First off, this is shit position for you to be in.

I perused your comment history as I often do with HNers.

Some guy was predicting this exact situation in 2009 and your comment was that this would all sort itself out due to market forces. The market forces have spoken and the market lacks empathy.

Hope you get your account back and then when you do you hop on to the the other side of the fence. We can all stand to learn from your experience here and 2009 was a long time ago.

If you are in the EU or an EU citizen you will have options (you can email them from the email associated with your account asking for all your data). If you are in the US (assumption) you will be stuck with their ToS and hope some guy in Meta with leverage reads this who simply wants to help.

For reference I proudly do not use any Meta products exactly for these reasons. This is an absurd and dystopian position to find yourself in.

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I'm in Canada where we can't even see or share news on Facebook
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