Update 6.3.15: StackSocial Facebook is now back in working order. Back to business!
It’s every publication’s worst social-media nightmare: StackSocial’s Facebook page was hacked late Monday night, turning the page into a clickbait spam feed. All Stack admins were locked out of the system, and 18 hours later we were still having no luck with Facebook in regaining control or understanding how the breach occurred – outlining some serious issues with FB’s support operations.
The entire Stack team has been working tirelessly to fix the issue, but Facebook’s deeply lacking customer support system has rendered our efforts futile to this point. In fact, the social media crisis has inspired a much deeper, impassioned exploration of Facebook’s remarkable shortcomings from Cult of Mac’s editor Leander Kahney, who is concurrently experiencing similar issues.
As Leander explains, attempting to report a high-level FB problem such as a hack is equivalent to entering an endless labyrinth maze, without any hope for immediate solutions – 0r even a response from Facebook support admins. We have sent emails, made phone calls, flagged and reported every post, all to no avail. Meanwhile, readers understandably offended by inappropriate content are migrating away from the page.
Support is everything.
The StackCommerce team appreciates your patience as we navigate Facebook’s preposterously flawed system to find a source to this security breach and a solution that goes beyond changing a password and two-step authentication. Readily available digital support in an age of instantaneous communication should be a no-brainer, particularly for those companies whose entire existence is based on direct interaction. While Facebook has no excuse for its flawed support system, StackCommerce remains committed to providing the very best browsing experience available online. Thanks again for your support – with a little luck (and some Zuckerberg accountability) we’ll be back up and running in no time.
Any risks identified in clicking the links? I clicked through one without thinking… :/
We’ve noticed some mobile browser hiccups when clicking the spam links, but nothing beyond that.
I’m in the same boat.. hopefully it’s benign :/
Looks like Cult of Mac got the issue resolved on their account. You might want to talk with them about who they ended up talking to so they could get it fixed.
We’ve been working closely with Cult to see about a similar solution. Unfortunately, Facebook doesn’t operate with such fluidity.