Published on April 10th, 2024
It happened to a close friend of mine. She was banned for life for using a tool that automatically accessed a social media site. That was about five years ago and it is still in effect today. For. Life.
The problem with automated tools, like ones that operate through Chrome extensions, is that you have to think from the perspective of the social media site, and you have to ask the question “how could a bad actor take advantage of this?”
For example, if I were a bad actor and wanted to spread disinformation, I would schedule thousands of posts to my profile, hundreds of groups, etc, and I would build an automated posting bot. I would then go to the beach while the bot did the dirty work.
You might be a great actor - the perfect actor even. But companies often make product and policy decisions with bad actors in mind. Frustratingly, that can affect the behaviors of good actors.
I’m not going to get into the specifics of the terms for any particular social media site, but some general rules of thumb are:
- Remain skeptical of anyone who interprets the terms of a social media site in an effort to sell you something. If the interpreter is not the social media site endorsing the behavior itself, be wary.
- Look around. Legitimate access to social media sites is always globally available. If one provider has a “silver bullet” that lets you access something no-one else can...well, we all learned at a young age that if something looks too good to be true…
- If a social media site shuts down automated access to one component of its platform, it’s highly unlikely that a “workaround” is allowed. If the behavior is not endorsed by the social media site itself, you might be putting your account at risk.
We at VipeCloud will never offer you a product that accesses another site unless it is explicitly allowed.
For a more in-depth dive into the terms of Facebook specifically, and how automated access (including via Google Extensions) is prohibited, view this article on CinchShare.
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