We’ve been contacted by some local groups about their Facebook pages and groups being disabled by Facebook.
Unfortunately, the MS Society can’t challenge Facebook’s decision to disable pages/groups. Your local group’s Facebook admin will have to do this directly from the page/group in question.
Frustratingly, Facebook uses artificial intelligence (AI) to monitor the site. Occasionally it seems to flag pages/groups where there’s no obvious cause for concern.
However, there are certain things you can do to lower the chance of your page/group being disabled.
Always have more than one admin for a page/group
A Facebook page/group has to be linked to a personal profile. If that person loses access to their account or forgets their login details, your local group’s Facebook page/group will become dormant. This could eventually lead to the page/group being disabled.
You should always have more than one page/group admin so someone will be able to access it. We also ask that the Volunteer Engagement and Communications Team account (Karen Mssociety) is added as an admin for this reason. Please be assured that members of staff won’t get involved in the day-to-day management of it — it’s a space for you and your group! You can find out more here.
Use your group’s official MS Society logo
Logos play an important role in helping people to recognise brands — we all reach for our favourite logos when we go shopping and it’s the same online. Show that your group’s part of the MS Society community by using the same branding. You can get an updated version of your group’s logo for Facebook featuring the new branding through MSS Designs.
MSS Designs is a free service for local groups to create bespoke branded materials. You can find out how to order your new group logo here.
Ensure admins are regularly engaging with the page/group
Make sure that admins are regularly engaging with the Facebook page/group to ensure it doesn’t go idle.
This doesn’t need to be a daily (or even weekly) thing, but a post at least twice a month from one of the admins will help to make sure the page/group is shown to be active and engaged.
Post suggestions include:
Talking about plans for the weekend
Re-sharing something from the MS Society’s main Facebook page
Creating conversations around MS topics
Items that might not even be MS related but are still appropriate and create a sense of community, such as ‘National Pet Day’. You can find a full list of ‘National Days’ here.
Asking questions to the community — the more comments underneath a post, the better the engagement, which’ll show Facebook the account’s active.
You can find lots more ideas on how to create engaging posts, and what to post, in the Social Media Toolkit for volunteers here.
It’s important to remember to only reshare posts/content from reputable sources. Anything you share which may be spam, or includes inappropriate content or language which is deemed offensive, can cause your page/account to be flagged.
Ensure a good level of moderation on the page/group
Make sure nobody in the community is adding offensive or inappropriate comments under any posts which could flag them to Facebook. If there’s anything which could upset others, it’s a good idea to remove the comment by hiding or deleting it as quickly as possible.
Assign badges to your community
Facebook pages/groups have a feature whereby people in the community can be assigned badges which represent their roles.
These will automatically be set for people such as admins/moderators. However, there are also certain badges which admins can assign to people who are actively engaging in the community.
Utilising Facebook’s features, such as badges, helps to boost the profile and limit the risk of the page/group being removed.
For more information about Facebook page badges, please click here.
For more information about Facebook group badges, please click here
Turn on anonymous posting for a Facebook group
Some of your connections might not feel comfortable talking about their experience openly. Allowing anonymous posting in your group helps to combat that as they can still engage with the community, just without their name attached.
Turning this feature on is recommended because it’s a great benefit to the community and shows Facebook that you’re engaging with their platform and utilising features. This’ll show that your group isn’t in an idle state.
Settings can be changed by going to the settings of the group and then changing the toggle to ‘on’ for ‘Anonymous posting’ under ‘Manage discussion’.
Be vigilant about spam
Spam involves being contacted by people with unwanted content or requests. This includes being sent a generic/bulk message, someone excessively posting irrelevant links, content or images on your page/group, or receiving untrustworthy friend requests.
Spam can spread by clicking unsafe links or installing malicious software. Scammers can sometimes gain access to people's Facebook accounts, which are then used to send spam.
If you come across spam on Facebook, you should report it to Facebook. By doing so, you'll be playing an important role in helping them protect other people from scams and showing that you’re a trusted member of the Facebook community. You can find more information on protecting your page from spam and how to report it here.
'Potential spam’ feature for Facebook groups
Ensure the ‘Potential spam’ feature is turned on if you have a Facebook group. Using this feature will ensure the safety of the community as Facebook will automatically highlight any posts which might appear to be spam/harmful to the community. Admins will receive notifications any time a post might be spam.
As with anonymous posting, utilising this feature will show Facebook that you’re using their systems and will help to keep your group active.
You can turn this feature on by going to the settings of the group and then ticking both options on for ‘Potential spam’ under ‘Manage discussion’.
Appealing Facebook's decision
If your page/group is still disabled or limited, you can find more information on why this may have happened, and how to appeal it, on Facebook:
