This isn’t a particularly Music or Miscellany post but I thought it might be of interest.

Apparently without warning last Saturday my Facebook and Instagram accounts were permanently disabled on the grounds that I’m underage. An assertion that I’ve not yet reached 13 is somewhat hilarious, heading towards truly bizarre. I’m in my 60s and I’ve had a modestly active Facebook account for something like 20 years, and Instagram for maybe five years. As far as I can ascertain, there is no appeal and no means of contacting anybody at Meta who might have the power to reverse this absurdity.

A bit of research suggests that this kind of Meta-farce is a well known problem. It repeatedly happens to many people. The most plausible explanation I’ve found is that It likely results from a hack in which the hackers gain access to the account via a leaked password (my Facebook password was a very odd one so unlikely to have been guessed). Once they’re in, they change the date of birth of the user. This results in Facebook’s AI (Artificial Incompetence) automatically disabling the account and provides the hackers with the opportunity to contact the user directly to offer to restore the account for a “modest” fee (which of course they can’t actually do). I’ve not received such an email yet, but maybe it’s only a matter of time. Meta are, it appears, very well aware of this kind of activity but are either unable or unwilling (or uncaring) to do anything about it (although you might have thought the AI would check how old the account is before assuming the user is under 13). Unfortunately, further research revealed that I’d perhaps had warning of Facebook going farcical. I’d had an email a few days earlier alerting me to suspicious activity on my account and encouraging me to change my password. Sadly however, Mac OS Mail decided the email was spam so I didn’t see it until it was too late.

Anyway, I guess the lessons here are: change your passwords regularly (especially on social media accounts), use two-factor authentication if it’s available, and check your Junk folder for significant content more often. And the next decision is whether to start again with Facebook and Instagram. Not entirely sure I can be bothered.