There is something strange going on with Facebook and Neowin. If you have tried to visit our Facebook page over the past few weeks, you will have noticed that it has simply vanished. While this could be a simple misunderstanding, Facebook has refused to reinstate the fan page because of a complaint that came from an @gmail.com address.
The saga started back on March 28 when Neowin was notified of a complaint against its Facebook page. Rather than doing something rational and contacting Neowin first, they simply pulled the page.
Facebook first responded to our request for more information with this reply:
Hi Dave,
Thanks for your email. As you know, we received a claim of alleged rights infringement regarding the removed content. Per Facebook's Statement of Rights and Responsibilities, users are prohibited from posting infringing content on the site.
If you believe that we have made a mistake in removing this content, then please contact the complaining party directly with the following information to resolve your issue:
Notice #: [255360006]
Contact Information:
Name - [Jonathan ******]
Email - [******@gmail.com]
If both parties agree to restore the reported content, please ask the complaining party to contact us via email with a copy of the agreement so that we can refer to the original issue. We will not be able to restore this content to Facebook unless we receive explicit notice of consent from the complaining party.
Thanks for contacting Facebook,
Marissa
User Operations
Neowin has not had any luck in contacting this individual and according to Facebook, the only way to retrieve our site is if Jonathan ****** agrees to reinstate the webpage. Facebook stated in a separate email, "unfortunately, we will be unable to restore this content unless we receive a direct request from this party."
We nagged Facebook for more information to which they stated:
The page uses trademark that belongs to one of our clients. The trademark "Neowin" represents a store of robot toys and is registered in UK and US.
We at Neowin did our diligence and scoured the Internet looking for this begotten robot store. When we dug through the trademark website of the US, we found no evidence of this, likewise can be said for the UK. Also, if you are a lawyer protecting a client, don't you think you would have some sort of email address other than GMAIL.com?
Neowin is registered as an LLC, we have rights to the Neowin business credentials but Facebook refuses to listen. We replied with the following message details:
1) You removed the page due to a complaint from a .gmail address that gave you a vague description and no facts or proof about the actual IP claim.
2) I have shown you that there is no USPTO filing for "Neowin", therefore his claim is false.
3) I have shown you that Neowin, LLC exists and has rights to the name.
4) The admin of the FaceBook page is emailing you from the neowin.net domain, not a gmail account
5) The person who made the claim is not a legal entity, and no "Neowin" robot toy exists
6) The so called claim comes from a griefer who has not responded to any emails. The reason why is because he is not real.
7) Since it is not a real person, legal office or any company that we can contact, we CAN'T get them to release this erroneous claim.
Facebook keeps responding by saying that the only way to resolve the issue is to get Jonathan to retract their complaint. Essentially, if you do not like a Facebook fanpage, create a DCMA request, send it from any email address, and then never open your email account again. By doing this, you can take down any fanpage because Facebook requires that the issuer rescind their initial complaint.
Neowin is at a bit of a roadblock. We asked to go around "Marissa" and speak to someone else but this has gotten us nowhere. Facebook drives enough traffic back to Neowin to make it worth our fight, but Lawyer's are not cheap and Neowin can't afford to fork out thousands of dollars to defend an anonymous complaint.
So we ask you Neowin readers and followers, what is our next step? Facebook is acting as a wall, we almost feel that "Marissa" knows that she was in the wrong and is now covering up her mistake by not providing rational responses and instead using canned responses.
[Update] Thanks for all your support! Neowin's Facebook page is back online. Thanks for sticking with us during this outage and make sure to like us on Facebook to show your support for our site.
[Update 4/27] We received notice from Facebook, that the page was pulled again due to the same false claim, we're waiting on who made the claim this time because Facebook doesn't give a detailed reason without asking for it.
[Update 4/28] Redmond Pie's page was taken down for a third time, you can read all about that here.
[Update 4/28] Our Facebook page is now back, it appears the coverage by many websites helped get our issue noticed by someone willing to think outside their job description. But, as of this time, we only have a handful of "likes", waiting to hear back if those will be restored too.
Someone is out to get you guys...
No doubt. Probably someone that was banned before.
It could be a current member who just likes to create trouble.
Isn't that the purpose behind having "official" pages on fb, twitter, etc? Get the name trademarked already so you don't have to worry about this bs any more.
Just protest facebook people.. delete your accounts and say the hell with them. You can see how much trouble it is to even have one or to be mindless zombies following the cult.
Look people, deleting out accounts wont do anything.
Even if we were to delete our accounts it would probably turn out to to be like .000001% of Facebooks total population. IT wouldnt do anything, so seriously, stop suggesting a "delete profile" protest because it wont do anything.
On another note, Neowin should sue the hell out of Facebook.
On another note, Neowin should sue the hell out of Facebook.
They are giving you a free service. You aren't paying money for it.
They are giving you a free service. You aren't paying money for it.
When an online service is free, it's often that YOU are the product being sold.
Think about it.
Nothing to sue Facebook about. Its a free service, Neowin didn't pay anything to have their Facebook page so technically there is no "right" to have one. Same with neowin's own service (forums). They can ban whomever they want. Although technically I guess someone could complain if they are a paying member and were banned. But I'm sure in that case Neowin immediately returns a pro-rated refund so they don't get in any legal trouble.
Apparently we are the product being sold, or something, I'm so confused. I'm just quoting mercurialmadnessman LOL.
Apparently we are the product being sold, or something, I'm so confused. I'm just quoting mercurialmadnessman LOL.
Except there is something called Terms of Service. Most people believe it is just rules that the person using the service needs to follow, but there's also plenty that state what the provider of said service needs to follow as well. As it has been deemed that official EULA/ToS are legally binding, it CAN go to court.
You must have ****ed off someone from 4chan.
Use the power of 4chan or anonymous.
A better way of protesting would be to file complaints about every single page on facebook. This would be an annoyance for the page admins like this is. But it would get the message across
Even though it's no fun what is happening you must say that you can only be succesful when you have a hater or two. So, in that case, go Neowin!
Anyway, the best of luck with this issue. Sometime they'll see the light.
Amen, brother.
Facebook's stupid system..
This is bull****. You think Facebook would have learned the first time and take some time to review and research claims. Wtf are all their employees doing, twiddling their thumbs? Assign some employees to a department to thoroughly research claims. There is no reason or excuse a bogus claim should be allowed to bring a page down.
It makes me wonder how come I've filed claims against pages and they go ignored, yet this is allowed to happen.
It wouldn't hurt for for Facebook to reveal more information to help Neowin establish what exactly is happening and how they can resolve the matter.
By listening to whoever is making these claims, they are actually favoring him/her/them over Neowin because they have apparently no interest in getting to the bottom of this.
why does neowin even have a fb page. just for the "likes"? serves no purpose.
Traffic, a lot of traffic is generated from facebook and news articles are posted to the facebook page with links back to the site. Facebook is an excellent advertising tool for webmasters, you can gain traffic, hits, helping placement in search engines etc..
To those saying to just create another fan page, has it not occurred to you that the troll filing these bogus complaints will search out and file complaints against the new page as well? Facebook needs to beef up it's review process for ip complaints so legitimate pages aren't taken down due to some hater that wants to cause trouble by filing bogus complaints. No less should be done than forcing Facebooks hand in realizing their error and reinstate the original page else this will keep happening.
RedmondPie.com has the exact same thing happen to them
hxxp://www.redmondpie.com/redmond-pies-facebook-page-taken-down-on-bogus-complaint/
http://www.redmondpie.com/redm...en-down-on-bogus-complaint/
Why hxxp?
I've LIKE it again and always will!