To all our Facebook friends – We have a good news!
After a few email communications, a few online forms to complete and a little help from a Facebook member of staff, we are pleased to announce that we are back on Facebook!
After 14 days of being inactive, Diethylstilbestrol, Journal of a DES Daughter Facebook page is live again so is the account used to administer the page.
So what happened?
Facebook, the successful social media platform where, in just a few months, we connected with more than 200 fans, 330 friends and DES activists from around the world, disabled our account on Wednesday 07th September without any warning nor explanations. As a result our page became inactive and inaccessible.
We were devastated by this action which made disappear in just a click 6 months of hard work to help raise awareness of the DES drug tragedy. Not everybody likes Facebook, but this platform is a great tool for us not only to keep up to date with the most recent DES Action Groups news and updates but to connect with other DES victims and spread the word about the DES side effects which affect millions of people around the world.
As if it wasn’t bad enough it could not have happened at a worst time when DES victims like myself were eager to read, share and comment on the fate of 53 DES Daughters currently battling in court in Boston, USA to condemn pharmaceutical companies for their responsibilities in their breast cancer associated with DES exposure.
On Wednesday 21st September 2011, Facebook emailed us back to say: “After investigating this further, it looks like we suspended your account by mistake. We are sorry for the inconvenience.” We are thrilled that the problem has now been solved and access to our facebook page has been restored.
Thank you for your kind comments and messages of support whilst we were busy trying to fix this issue. Please encourage your friends to like us on Facebook!
I hope Facebook reverses its decision to deactivate both Facebook accounts. This situation makes one wonder if someone is trying to silence your efforts to raise DES awareness.
Keep up your great work. DES victims everywhere support you!
Caitlin McCarthy
We can’t even begin to imagine the nightmare you are enduring. You’ve put so much work into your efforts to spread the word about DES exposure. Our thoughts are with you as you work thru this. Hopefully, Facebook can be made to see the error of its ways and reinstate your pages quickly. Sooner is better!
Fran, DES Action USA
I do think this is very suspicious on Facebooks part. Why would they disable the page? There is no legal reason. It seems to me that the drug companies are worried and found a way to shut us down. But not quite. If ‘they’ think we can be silenced they are wrong. The CDC has breast cancer DES info as well as many other sources. This just makes me hopping mad and it makes the drug companies look very guilty. They’re shooting themselves in the foot. Are you paying attention, Eli Lilly and the rest of you?
Suzanne
Facebook must reconsider this negative action. This site, rather than provide chit/chat and/or nonsense has a real purpose that reached around the world. Facebook must have a public conscience and must restore this site.
Karen
@Suzanne, you’re taking this too far I’m afraid. It happens to a lot of people.
Happened to me. Happened to my friends.
No there are no legal reasons but it is against their TOS. Profile pages are for people, fan pages are for businesses and other organizations. They *do* check profiles on a regular base and then and of course there’s always a chance someone who doesn’t like you clicks the ‘report profile’ link.
I’m not saying it’s not awful to have your profile & page disabled but it took me a week to get it back up again by changing my name into my real one.
I am glad that your accounts have been re-instated and I applaud you for chasing the matter.
I would like to take on this opportunity to personally thank Bella, Facebook Users Operations, for her help and support in getting us back on Facebook. It’s great to know that real people who do care work at Facebook! Thanks