In the last 60 days, Facebook has restricted me from buying and selling on Facebook Marketplace. They stated I didn't follow their community standards, which is pretty vague. I was also not given an explanation for the ban. I have been a Facebook user for years, and I have never had a problem buying or selling until this year. Like many users, I used Facebook to make a little extra money. Not sure if there claim that I it has to do with all the COVID-19 regulations or not. I'm sure it's a bot using an algorithm implementing the ban, and not a person. However, it could be some unkind Facebook user Aka jerk making biased and unfair reports unbeknownst to me.

To summarize further, I placed an add for a car and a car door about 2 months ago. Facebook banned me from buying and selling on Facebook. Their website says you can request a review if you disagree with their decision. So, I clicked on the big blue "Request Review" button multiple times and nothing happens. Logged out of FB, cleared browser cache and still nada. Then I read how to report a problem with marketplace through their help & support section. Took a screenie showing I couldn't use marketplace, sent it in. They say they'll get back to you with an email within a week with their decision. Never heard from FB.

I was real frustrated, so I decided to delete my account and wait the 30 days. I recently created a new account. Waited a few days before posting another ad to make sure everything was OK. Didn't get banned. Cool, right? So then I posted an ad for a car with the price, mileage, description and photos. Didn't intentionally violate any community guidelines to my knowledge, and I have been banned from any other forums where I placed an ad for the same car.

Yesterday, I left my account logged in. Went outside to do some work. When I returned to my laptop, it said I had been logged out for violating community guidelines again. They asked for my mobile number to send a text to my phone in order to verify my identity. I was hesitant to do that, but did it anyway so I could get back into my account. I was able to log back in once I did that, but they restricted my access from marketplace again. Seriously? What kind of jerks run this app? They ask me for my phone number, I give it to them, then they say sorry for the inconvenience. I can log back in but I can use marketplace. There's no support phone number and no email.

What are my options other than continuing to create new accounts, only to have them banned again? That's a PITA? I feel like dumping FB permanently not only for this but because of invasion of privacy, government overreach and because Snuckerberg (pun intended in name) is a sleazebag as well. I have Ebay but I already spent $150 in Ebay fees and the car didn't sell. Truly upset that I can't continue to use marketplace to sell a few things without being roasted by some vague guidelines and no explanation from FB stating what I did wrong so I can dispute it.

Hi DanPatrick10,

I'm sorry you had so much trouble with Facebook Marketplace. From what you said in your post, I'm not really sure what's causing all your issues; I've seen many people post ads for selling their cars.

After reading through all their community standards in detail, the only things I can think of that may be causing them to ban/restrict you is if the car you were trying to sell was recalled in the past (they don't allow recalled products to be bought/sold due to safety issues) or stolen (NOT calling you a criminal lol, but if you originally bought the car from another individual and not a dealership, it could be a possibility, but hopefully unlikely). I would try and google the make&model of the car to make sure there weren't any announcements of a recall, and make sure that the car's VIN number is present/secure/unaltered on the dash and that the VIN plate and license plate haven't been messed with.

Assuming that the car hasn't been recalled or stolen though, it doesn't sound like you're violating any of their rules and it's just the site being weird. I guess your next option would be to sell the car on a different website, maybe one that's specifically for cars so you have a more focused audience?

Sorry this wasn't of more help, but good luck!

I have the car listed on a few Nissan forums which are exclusive to specific Nissan models including mine, so it limits my market to those subcultures. The car is also almost 40 years old so all of the recall or service campaigns have been performed. Nissan has archived the VIN# and there are no open recalls due to the age of the car. With that said, I'm sure I'm not violating any state or local laws or community guidelines. I agree with what you said. After COVID-19, they clearly made changes with the way context is handled by their algorithm. I think the bots ban you for just about anything because they come to the wrong conclusion when analyzing the context of your post or message. This is why we need humans giving traffic tickets or monitoring posts and not bots.