Tag: Facebook

(SIZE=12.8000001907349px)this is going to be a VERY long and(/SIZE)
VERY emotional email.

I don’t send out mail that often so do
me a favor and just pause what you’re
doing for a few minutes and read this
email in it’s entirety.

I guess the best place to start is from
the day it happened.

September 4th, 2014 I received a legal
letter from Facebook’s attorney office regarding
tools that scraped UID’s in an automated
fashion. Pretty much, they thought that I was
the creator of a tool that wasn’t mine and
I hadn’t heard anyone even talk about for
about a year.

September 5th – My access to Facebook was
revoked. Account banned, Rachel’s account
banned – do not pass go, do not collect a dime.

You know me, I’m about as white hat as it
gets. Sure, we push the envelope sometimes
when innovating, but this was a shock to me.
This also just happened to be the exact same
day that I moved to Las Vegas. So on a personal
level I was a WRECK. I just moved to a new
city away from all of my family and friends.
The same day all of my social connection to
everyone I knew was ripped away.

I didn’t know what to do. The foundation of
my entire business had just been ripped away…
and Facebook had only given me 48 hours to
respond before taking “whatever means necessary”
to enforce their rights.

So frantically I developed a relevant legal team.
I already had attorneys, but this was going to take
a litigation specialist that had experience with dealing
with Facebook(SIZE=12.8000001907349px). After hiring five attorneys within(/SIZE)
a 2 day span we found a team that we felt could
deliver. Top notch, a LARGE retainer, and hefty
hourly fees. Let’s just say, this situation would
bankrupt most businesses pretty quickly.

Now, this was all within the first week of September.
It’s now the beginning of February. During this time I’ve
had to spend hundreds of hours jumping through every
hoop imaginable to convince them that we are white
hat.(SIZE=12.8000001907349px) It’s been stressful.(/SIZE)

Bottom line, Facebook hates scrapers that pull UID’s.
This (SIZE=12.8000001907349px)has been pretty well known for a while. The tool (/SIZE)
(SIZE=12.8000001907349px)they (/SIZE)(SIZE=12.8000001907349px)didn’t like that I promoted in mid-2013 wasn’t even (/SIZE)
(SIZE=12.8000001907349px)a (/SIZE)(SIZE=12.8000001907349px)scraper. It was an API compliant tool – unfortunately, (/SIZE)
they don’t care. They view them all the same. And
unfortunately, in fb land, they are the prosecutor and
the judge.

This wasn’t even my tool. They don’t care. If I was
in any way associated with the sale of it. It’s a TOS
violation. And the wacky thing is, the known owner
of the tool still has an account.

I actively told people very publicly NOT to use UID’s
and not to use the tool for 8+ months before the letter.
They don’t care. Even though their main goal is to
get people to not use UID’s and I was screaming that
louder than anyone… they still banned me.

It’s been disheartening to say the least. Most of the
time, I see no rhyme or reason to the next hoop that
they make me jump through. And I still can’t figure
out why they are throwing the book at me so hard.
It honestly makes no sense… and poor Rachel has
lost her account in the process of all of this as well.

(Note: want to know how to cause stress in a relationship?
get both your accounts banned that you both use for business
and have spent years building – sucks on a lot of levels – luckily
we’ve got a lot of love and get through things together

It’s been a heck of a battle over the last several months
over something from 2013 that wasn’t even mine. Do I
feel like a victim. Yeah. But that won’t solve anything.

I’ve been working tirelessly every day on this for months
now and I feel like I’m getting closer to a resolution with
Facebook, but we still aren’t quite there. I’ve got the best
attorneys there are working on this, and I’m doing everything
in my power to get back on the platform so that I can continue
to serve you with the same case studies and value that you
have come accustomed to from me.

This should also explain why I haven’t been e-mailing that
much. I believe that a certain amount of value needs to be
sent in communications during and between promotions.
People deserve to be treated like people – served first and
sold second. Right now, I’m lacking a lot of tools to be able
to serve the market properly – whether it be by an actual
resource restriction, or a temporary legal restriction while
(SIZE=12.8000001907349px)I work this out with Facebook. I’ve had to cancel 7 figures (/SIZE)
(SIZE=12.8000001907349px)in (/SIZE)(SIZE=12.8000001907349px)launches and say no to a lot of promotions on quality(/SIZE)
products. It sucks, but I’ve set a very high standard for
the content I put out, and that’s never going to change.

I will say this. As much as I hate this situation and I feel
like a victim, I wouldn’t be where I am today if it weren’t
for Facebook in the first place. I still believe it’s the most
powerful platform for someone to get on the internet with
almost nothing in their pocket and completely change
their life. I’ve seen it happen too many times with my
own eyes to believe anything else no matter how jaded,
unfair, or screwed up of a situation I’m in.

For now, my legal team and I are going to continue to work
(SIZE=12.8000001907349px)every day to get back my account and the tools I need (/SIZE)
to continue to change people’s lives in IM. In the meantime
you’ll still see me put out content here and there about
things that aren’t facebook specific that I can still provide
massive value in – sales funnels, sequencing, winning JV
contests, etc.

To conclude, the fight has been tough. Real tough. And
just when I feel like I’m close to a resolution with them, every
time… up comes another hoop. I’m going to continue to (SIZE=12.8000001907349px)work (/SIZE)
(SIZE=12.8000001907349px)every single day on this. There’s (/SIZE)(SIZE=12.8000001907349px)lives to change. So it is the (/SIZE)
(SIZE=12.8000001907349px)only option, it’s just a matter of (/SIZE)(SIZE=12.8000001907349px)time and continued hoop (/SIZE)
(SIZE=12.8000001907349px)jumping.(/SIZE)

There you have it, my situation, and my heart on a sleeve.

Know that I appreciate you. Thank you for opening, thank you
for reading, and thank you for continuing to stick with me.