The Account Suspension Trap and How to Mitigate It

I’ve been reading a lot lately about accounts being banned on various platforms without any explanation or help to resolve the issues that caused the ban in the first place. It got me thinking about what would happen if this were to occur to me — not just on social media like Facebook, but on any platform where I share or save content, even private content.

Here are just a few examples:

If you search online, you'll find many more instances of this happening to people.

I started asking myself:

Would I be able to recover?
How long would it take?
Most importantly, how would it affect me?

It's important to remember that while some may have indeed violated laws or policies, others may not have intended to do so and shouldn't be treated the same way. Unfortunately, many platforms are overwhelmed by the amount of information and abuse occurring, making it difficult to differentiate quickly enough. This leaves those with good intentions out in the rain, causing them severe damage.

In this blog post, I want to share my thoughts and constructive ideas on things everyone can do to reduce the risk of being put into such a situation. I'm just like you—a heavy digital consumer—who tries to learn from my own mistakes and those of others.

Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer, and this is by no means legal advice. I am simply sharing my curiosity and keen interest in what this means for me and for everyone else out there if we were put in a similar situation that could have a severe impact on our lives.

The Problem with Being Locked Out

There are primarily two issues when you find yourself locked out of an account:

Loss of Income: If you're a blogger or someone who makes money with your content, you will probably lose customers and revenue. This is already severe.
Access to Your Content: If you don't have a way to access your content and switch to a Plan B (like moving to a different platform), you're forced to start from scratch. This doesn't help immediately, but at least you don't have to start over completely—whether it's blogs, videos, or other content.

Platforms may include anything where you have a digital footprint and content essential for your work or everyday life. Apart from the usual suspects like email, consider platforms like:

Social Media Platforms: Facebook, YouTube (especially for advertising)
Developer Platforms: GitHub, GitLab, Hugging Face, and many more
Deployment Platforms: If you have applications or websites deployed, such as on Hugging Face, Vercel, Replit, etc.

Public vs. Private Content

With public content, it might be slightly easier to access if it's still available online (even if the provider has decided for some reason to revoke your access to your own content). For private content, it's more problematic because the data is not recoverable unless you have made regular backups (see below for more about that).

Navigating Platform Policies and Laws

Many of the laws and rights, of course, don't apply to unlawful content. They are primarily for instances where the locking is not transparent to the user, for example, because of:

Too much advertising

Excessive access to an API

A sentence the platform does not "like" (I don't want to get political, but you can imagine what I’m talking about)

Regarding policies and laws, if they are on your side and you have the right to get your data, there's still a problem: you need to get access to retrieve your data, so you need to contact the provider.

If the provider has a hotline (unlikely for most platforms), you might end up relying on a support ticket where you have to go through a painful authentication procedure or support email where you may not get an immediate response.

If this is your main source of income, you probably have a problem, and in many cases, there is not much you can do except looking for backups, reading forums about what the reasons might be, and seeking any other tips.

Proactive Measures: How Can You Mitigate the Risk?

You might be thinking, "I use hundreds of platforms; how can I take care of all of them?" The short answer is: you don't have to. There's no 100% guarantee anywhere, but you can certainly mitigate the risk by keeping the focus on this:

Your Latest Work: Whether you're a developer, data scientist, business analyst, blogger, or any other professional, prioritize backing up your most recent and critical work.
Sensitive Data: Any credentials or sensitive data that you've entrusted to a platform should be secured. For example, if you have an application or website deployed somewhere that has access to a third party, you need to control access to these credentials, especially if they are not free (like an API or anything like that).
Platforms Where You Publish Content: Think of any platform or location where you publish content (private or public). Consider platforms where you have your apps deployed, such as Hugging Face, Vercel, Replit, and hundreds more.

What Data Should You Back Up?

The Content: For blogs, remember that many platforms export only the text of the blogs, not the media, which means you can't really recover fully if you have media embedded.
Configurations or Credentials: As mentioned above, anything crucial for the operation of your services.
Personal Data: Don't forget to back up your personal information that may be stored on these platforms.

Understanding the Legal Landscape

I am not a lawyer, but I wanted to understand the legal landscape regarding access to user-generated content on locked accounts in Europe and the United States. Here's what I found:

### Europe: The Digital Services Act (DSA)

The European Union has introduced comprehensive regulations to govern digital platforms, primarily through the Digital Services Act (DSA). The DSA imposes obligations on online platforms to manage illegal content and protect user rights.



Platform Obligations: Platforms must remove illegal content, suspend accounts disseminating such content, and report criminal offenses.

User Rights: The DSA enhances user protection but does not explicitly address user rights to access their content when accounts are locked.

Platform Accountability: Very large online platforms must conduct annual risk assessments, independent audits, and appoint compliance officers for illegal content obligations.


> I used to wonder why the EU has so much bureaucracy, but when you come into this situation, you appreciate that someone else has thought about it.

  
  
  United States: Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act


In the U.S., Section 230 provides platforms with immunity from liability for user-generated content, provided they act to remove unlawful content once notified.



Platform Discretion: Platforms have the discretion to lock accounts and restrict access to content based on their terms of service.

User Rights: Unlike the EU, the U.S. lacks a comprehensive regulatory framework that mandates specific user rights regarding content access on locked accounts.


Conclusion (by GPT): The right to access user-generated content on locked accounts is a complex issue influenced by legal, regulatory, and platform-specific factors. Understanding the regulatory landscape and the specific terms of service of the platforms you use is crucial.

Is There Anything We Can Do About It?

While we can't easily change the laws, we can certainly take some preventative measures to avoid being put into this situation or at least be able to recover up to a certain extent (say 80%), so it won't be a total loss.

The Goal

Avoid being at the mercy of a tech giant whenever, for some reason, they decide to lock you out (and leave you there for a while).

When to Back Up (For the Busy or Lazy)

If you have an automated solution, it would be even better. But if you don't—which is probably the case for most people—consider having a working copy of your content (blog posts, videos, code, etc.) and backing up at regular intervals, especially your most recent work.

Platforms and How to Back Up Your Data

Here are a few examples of platforms where you can easily export all your data immediately:

Medium

Export All Data:
- Navigate to Medium Settings.

GitHub

Export All Data:
- Go to GitHub Admin Settings.

ChatGPT

Export All Data:
- Visit ChatGPT Settings.

These are just some of the platforms I have already investigated, and I back up my data from them all the time.

I'd love to help by creating a central place where we can all share a list of platforms and how to regain access or make backups on those platforms. I know we can find this information online, but having it in one place makes it much easier to get started right away!

I’d Love to Hear from You

I don't want to comment further on the legal aspects, but I would be super happy to hear your thoughts and experiences on this. Have you ever been locked out of an account? How did you handle it? What preventative measures do you take?