Facebook Pages Can Have All Their Admins Removed, Leaving No Way to Control Them

Facebook Page admins recently received the ability to remove all existing administrators including themselves from a Page, preventing anyone from editing or posting as that Page. Admins previously saw a warning explaining "If you remove yourself as the last admin, this page will be deleted". This prompt no longer appears, and the Page is not deleted. The change in messaging and functionality has led some Page admins to accidentally lock themselves and all other admins out of their Page, leaving their audience Liking a Page with no one controlling it. We've heard about this issue from other Page admins and we're seeing it ourselves, but are not exactly sure how widespread it is. It's possible that all Pages are susceptible, so admin teams should confer to ensure no one mistakenly leaves their Page headless. In June, Facebook began allowing any admin to remove any other admin, even those with longer tenure than them or who created the Page. Last month, Facebook implemented a new Page admin interface, giving the admin permissions manager its own page. This issue may have arisen with the switch to the new interface. When an admin is in the Manage Admins section while editing their Page, they have the option to add or remove admins. If all admins are removed, and the "Save Changes" button is clicked, an empty Manage Admin section loads. However, upon trying to re-add admins to correct the mistake, or trying to navigate to any other section of the Page editor, the Facebook home page is loaded. From then on, no one can control the headless Page, meaning there is no way to edit, post as, or delete the Page. Existing Likes are not severed, but there is no way to communicate with the audience. An admin's only options are to confirm the problem on an existing Help Center question about the issue, confirm an existing bug report about the issue, or submit a new bug report. Former Page admins are likely to create similar or identical Pages to the ones they lost access to, cluttering Facebook with duplicates. Without access, admins aren't able to buy ads which direct to their Pages, costing Facebook potential dollars. It's therefore in Facebook's interest to reinstate the warning, delete Pages when their last admin is removed, and consider implementing a way for the last admin removed from any headless Page to reclaim their Page.

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Facebook Pages Can Have All Their Admins Removed, Leaving No Way to Control Them

Josh Constine

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Josh Constine