We're Back (Sort Of): What We Learned From Nearly a Month Without Our Facebook Page

We have some good news and some frustrating news to share with you all.

After our Facebook business page and 8 groups where hacked, we’ve had nearly a month of fighting, scrambling, crying and advocating, but… we finally have our Facebook business page back in our control. To everyone who reached out, shared our posts and helped us stay visible during this nightmare, thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

Unfortunately, we still have eight private groups that are still in the hands of hackers. We're continuing to fight for those, but we wanted to give you an update on where things stand and share what we've learned through this incredibly frustrating process.

When Support Doesn't Exist

Here's what we want other small businesses to know: if your Facebook page or groups get hacked, you are essentially on your own.

We followed every official channel Meta provides. We reported the hacking incident through their systems. We filled out forms. We waited for responses. And what did we get? Broken links. Automated replies. And ultimately, a support representative telling us they were "unable to support" us.

Let that sink in. A company that makes billions of dollars off small businesses like ours told us they couldn't help us recover our own business page.

We are Meta Verified on Instagram and upgraded the Meta Verified on Facebook (the expensive version). This is a paid verification service that's supposed to come with enhanced support. But here's what Meta's own support team told us: even if businesses pay for Meta Verified, it doesn't usually help with hacked pages or groups. Their exact words? "Usually, once they're gone, they're gone."

That's not a glitch in the system. That's the system.

How We Actually Got Our Page Back

If it wasn't for personal connections through our business and community, we would still be locked out. We were fortunate enough to have someone (our little Meta fairy godperson, as we've been calling them) who had the right connections to escalate our case and actually get human eyes on our situation.

This shouldn't be how it works. Small businesses shouldn't need to know someone who knows someone just to recover from a security breach on a platform they depend on.

Our Disappointment With Meta

We are thrilled to have our page back. We're grateful to the individuals who helped us. But we are profoundly disappointed in Meta as a company.

Small businesses are the backbone of Facebook's advertising revenue and platform engagement. We create content, build communities, and drive traffic. Meta profits enormously from our work. And yet, when we need help, when our businesses are actively under attack, there is no meaningful support infrastructure.

The broken links, the automated responses, the admission that even paid services won't help. It all points to a company that has deprioritized the very businesses that make their platform valuable. Honestly, this shouldn’t be surprising to us, but the lack of service went beyond bad.

What We're Doing Now

We're continuing to fight for our eight groups. We're documenting everything. And we're speaking out, because other small businesses need to know what they're up against.

In the meantime, we're also diversifying. This experience has been a stark reminder that we cannot rely solely on platforms we don't control. We're strengthening our email list, our website, and our presence on other platforms. We encourage you to do the same.

The hacked groups have also created new, backup groups in the meantime. If you were in the Portland, Washington, Montana, Vanvouver, Last Vegas, New Mexico or Arizona groups, reach out and we can get you the links to the new groups while we try to navigate next steps for the hacked groups. The community and local events continue!

Thank You

To our community: you showed up for us when Meta didn't. You shared our posts, sent messages of support and helped us stay connected during this ordeal. That means everything.

To our Meta insider helper behind the scenes: we cannot thank you enough. You turned what felt like an impossible situation into a victory, even if it's only a partial one so far.

And to other small businesses: protect yourselves. Use two-factor authentication. Document everything. Build your audience on multiple platforms. And know that if the worst happens, Meta's official support probably won't save you, but your community might.

We'll keep you posted as we continue working to recover our groups. In the meantime, we're just grateful to be back and talking to you all again.

Thank you for sticking with us.