Facebook Locks People Out of Accounts for Not Activating Protect Feature

Early in March, many Facebook users got a spam-like email titled “Your account requires advanced security from Facebook Protect”. The email also contained a date until then users had to turn on the Facebook Protect feature. Otherwise, they would be locked out of their account.

Facebook Locks People Out of Accounts for Not Activating Protect Feature

According to Facebook, it is a “security program for groups of people that are more likely to be targeted by malicious hackers, such as human rights defenders, journalists, and government officials.” It’s meant to do things like ensuring those accounts are monitored for hacking threats and that they are protected by two-factor authentication (2FA).

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The deadline for enabling security protection was March 17. Now, some users have been locked out by Facebook which has not activated the security feature.

“Turn on Facebook Protect to unlock your account,” the notification says. “Account locked on March 17, 2022. We’ve taken this precaution to keep your account secure while you enable additional security measures.”

Not only this but some users who had enabled the additional security measure still found themselves locked out of their accounts. Others who hadn’t requested Facebook Protect were also locked out. While some are experiencing tech issues in getting a code sent to their phones.

Facebook Protect is offered to high-profile users of the platform, such as journalists, government officials, human rights activists and those with a higher-reach following. By December, around 1.5 million accounts had enabled Facebook Protect.

Unfortunately, Facebook has not said anything regarding this yet.

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