Losing a social account and a community built over years – how do you protect your account?
Yesterday, I had an unpleasant experience. For a few minutes, I lost my LinkedIn community of several thousand people (TL;DR: I was falsely accused of using suspicious software).
Fortunately, I got my account back – but it was a strong reminder that we don’t own platforms, nor our profiles on them.
The only safeguards that came to mind were:
Building relationships with internal employees of the platforms
Growing an email list
Creating a backup account and growing it in parallel
Exploring decentralised social networks
How would you handle and protect against situations like this?
400 views
Replies
I was one of the early people to go viral on LinkedIn about seven years ago. Shortly after that, my account was blocked without any explanation. I eventually got it back, but the experience made me pause and ask myself whether this was really the platform I wanted to build on. Since then, I haven’t posted there.
I’ve been thinking about returning, but that fear still lingers. That’s why I agree with your point about having a newsletter. I also strongly believe in building a community, but not relying on just one platform.
I’ve lost communities before because platforms changed rules or banned accounts without warning. Even when access was restored, the damage was already done.
That experience taught me an important lesson: your audience should never live on a single platform. Ideally, you should diversify across at least two, whether that’s community platforms, newsletters or social profiles.
On a related note, I have a blue tick on my personal Facebook account, it was granted organically, not through a paid subscription. Since then, I’ve seen a lot of attempted login and hacking attempts. Meta enforces two-factor authentication for verified accounts, and honestly, that extra layer of security has been incredibly helpful.
All of this reinforces the same idea for me: distribution, ownership and protection matter just as much as reach.
minimalist phone: creating folders
@rohanrecommends It seems that trade for fame is a loss of privacy. 🙃
MultiDrive
I had been advised to be cautious with browser extensions, as some can be insecure.
That’s why I only use a small number of well-known and trusted ones.
Most likely, the issue was caused by an extension interacting with LinkedIn.
MultiDrive
I'm happy that you restored your account!! It's really a nightmare :'(
@tetianai Yes, it’s literally luck! Quite a few people were hacked afterward and couldn’t recover their accounts. It’s extremely difficult. Meta/X/LinkedIn have delegated these issues almost entirely to AI, and there’s basically no human involved. And when you get hacked, the most common thing is that your password, email, and phone number get changed. I had 2FA enabled before that, but it didn’t help either. It’s honestly a nightmare if you get hacked, and it’s pure luck if you manage to recover your account.
minimalist phone: creating folders
@tetianai I should reconsider using LinkedIn in a different browsing card. Or browser.
Oh, Nika! What a nightmare!
Ten months ago my Twitter account was hacked. And it was truly horrible: so many contacts, so much work. I had close to 6k followers at the time. And all I got were AI replies to my emails saying that this email address no longer existed in the system (good morning, of course the hackers change it immediately).
The only thing that saved me was my friends. A close friend from Twitter managed to get me into email contact with a Twitter employee. He escalated the case to the department that handles hacked accounts. That’s it. That was the only thing that saved me. Nothing else helps. Really.
minimalist phone: creating folders
@byalexai Being popular has its advantages and disadvantages.
The disadvantage was that your account was big and very attractive to hackers.
The advantage was that you were very active, trustworthy, and kinda popular in real life, so you could be connected with someone from Twitter.
I think it is important to invest in more than one source of connections.
@busmark_w_nikaThat's a nightmare scenario - glad you got it resolved. The "you're just renting space" reality of social platforms hits different when you're actually locked out.
Beyond what you mentioned, here are a few things I've seen work:
Regular exports: LinkedIn lets you download your connections as a CSV. I do this quarterly now. Won't help with engagement history, but at least you have contact info if you need to rebuild elsewhere.
Cross-platform movement: Don't just grow an email list - actively move your best community members to multiple platforms. Not in a spammy way, but like "I also share deeper dives on [Substack/personal blog/Discord]." So if one platform implodes, you have actual relationships that exist outside of it.
Document your appeal process: Screenshot everything during the restoration process. Which support channels worked, what evidence you provided, how long each step took. If (when) it happens again, you'll have a playbook instead of panicking.
Platform diversification with purpose: Instead of "backup accounts," think about which platforms serve different purposes. LinkedIn for professional network, Twitter/X for real-time conversation, newsletter for owned audience, etc. Makes it less about redundancy and more about strategic presence.
The decentralized network thing is interesting in theory (Mastodon, Bluesky, etc.) but honestly the audience just isn't there yet for most use cases. Worth experimenting with, but I wouldn't rely on it as your safety net.
Curious - did LinkedIn ever tell you specifically what triggered the false positive? Helpful to know what behaviors to avoid.
minimalist phone: creating folders
@dushyant_khinchi These points are pretty valid, thank you for outlining them.
As for LinkedIn triggering, I can see more reasons:
interacting with many people
fast replies
looking at more profiles at once
SEMrush
I couple of years ago, LinkedIn blocked my account when my Premium subscription expired. And they didn't clarify why it happened. Support just sent me a generalized automatic reply. I had 7,000+ followers, it felt horrible... Luckily, the company I worked for had a paid LinkedIn subscription and I was able to reach out to them via a sales representative to restore access. So, being a paying client actually helps to protect your account 😅 but honestly, it sucks.
minimalist phone: creating folders
@alina_petrova3 That is a pretty unfair approach. Like not paying, not caring? I get that there is special care for those who pay, but removing your account just because Premium ended is not the way how to get more Premium subscribers. Not me :D
SEMrush
@busmark_w_nika "amazing" hack to boost your product revenue... 😂
I don't know why they blocked me. They didn't explain. I received this messages from their support team:
Thanks for contacting us. Your account has violated the LinkedIn User Agreement and Professional Community Policies. Due to the number and/or the severity of these violations, this account has been permanently restricted.
I didn't violate any policy and I asked to clarify, here is what they replied:
So I couldn't do anything, even renew my premium subscription 🫠
minimalist phone: creating folders
@alina_petrova3 The reply looks like AI-generated to be honest.
That’s a scary experience. Glad you got it back.
This really reinforces the idea that platforms are distribution, not ownership. Email lists and direct relationships feel less like a growth tactic and more like basic risk management now.
minimalist phone: creating folders
@shreya_chaurasia19 Yes, I got it back, but I am afraid that if this repeats, I can lose it forever.
Triforce Todos
This is why I keep saying: platforms are like rented apartments. One day you might get evicted for no reason.
minimalist phone: creating folders
@abod_rehman Such an accur8 paralel.
minimalist phone: creating folders
@elepedus How do you make people to subscribe to you? Do you have any newsletter with periodicity?
minimalist phone: creating folders
@elepedus Okay, but I would be very careful with reposting, because each platform is unique.
IXORD
I had the same situation with LinkedIn as you. I didn’t use any programs, but the system still flagged me for a violation. I had to contact support and resolve the issue. In the end, I got my account back.
minimalist phone: creating folders
@ixord When this happened? Because it seems that their support is automated.
IXORD
@busmark_w_nika That’s correct, it is set as a spam protection measure. For example, if you send messages to a large number of people asking them to vote for your product, the account could be blocked.
vibecoder.date
I have accidentally hedged against this by not having a large presence.
Email list and backups are the first that come to my mind.
Owning a social media platform. (as in building or white labeling your own) is a lot of work and time spent. Not sure if it's worth it. Decentralized networks are good, I like some of the mastodon servers.
Aside from all of that, having a loyal community on your own forums, (like oldschool forums we used to have), would be the best bet imo.
Something like https://www.phpbb.com/about/ or https://mybb.com/ Also https://github.com/discourse/discourse if you want a more modern community.
Self hosting will give you control but it comes with responsibilities.
minimalist phone: creating folders
@build_with_aj I wish to have those communities more UX/UI friendly :D
vibecoder.date
@busmark_w_nika I get that, they look and feel like they are right out of a mid 2000s fever dream.
We need same functionality but with modern UX, and PWA capabilities.
minimalist phone: creating folders
@build_with_aj Yes, because people who are not into coding/programming etc. will not be so attracted to use the technology. That's why UI/UX matter more than we think.