Does Facebook “shake to report” cause users to go to FB Jail? Fact Check
A message spreading on Facebook claims that users may be inadvertently reporting pages or sending other users to “FB Jail” because of a new feature on the mobile app that submits a report whenever the user shakes their phone.
MOSTLY FALSE
Examples of the warning can be seen below.
**Your public service announcement for today**
THIS IS NO JOKE!!!!!
The recent FB update added this new feature 👇 for mobile FB users. Since this update – some people have landed in FB jail multiple times (yes, it’s a real place and there’s no fair trial or bail out options! 🤦🏻♀️) It seems many of us are accidentally ‘reporting a problem’ and getting our friends thrown in jail. 😲
How can you fix it? 🤔
When you’re in FB, shake your phone (yes, literally) around until this shows up. Then slide that ‘shake phone to report a problem’ button to OFF!
This is no joke shake your phone! Not fast or hard. I just removed mine. I honestly thought this was a joke 😂 but it isn’t.
Fix your phones people – let’s keep our friends out of FB jail
collected June 2019
URGENT WARNING!!
Do you wonder why pages are being reported and people are being sent to FB jail for unknown reasons? Because FB is a twattwaffle!
Check your settings!!
They have this new thing, if you shake your phone it reports—-
Make sure you check your settings because it’s automatically on 😡
collected June 2019
Facebook automatically opted you in for this new feature and it could end you or your friends in FB jail. #OptOUT #pleaseSHARE
collected August 2019
What’s true? In May 2019, Facebook began rolling out a “shake to report” feature allowing mobile users to report issues with the app just by shaking their phone. This option can be enabled or disabled via the Help and Support then the Report A Problem options. Many users have reported that this feature is enabled by default.
What’s false? This won’t have anything to do with why pages are being reported or users being sent to “FB Jail”. The feature is only for reporting technical or payment issues within the Facebook app (i.e. bugs) and not for reporting pages, groups, users or content. This is being gradually rolled out to both iPhone and Android users on a staggered basis, meaning not all users may have the feature available at the time of writing. It’s also unlikely that any inadvertent bug reporting will occur since users will need to interact with a menu after shaking their phone. Also, this is no longer really a “new feature” since it was introduced in 2019, when these misleading rumours began to circulate.
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At the end of May 2019, Facebook announced a new feature for the mobile Facebook app that will – according to Facebook – make it easier for users to report bugs they encounter within the Facebook app. Users can simply shake their phone to bring up an option allowing them to report the bug. Previously this has been an opt-in feature for iPhone users, but Facebook is rolling out to both iPhone and Android users throughout June 2019.
Facebook also plans to expand this feature to allow users to shake their phone if they could not figure out how to complete an action.
Once a user shakes the phone, they can then click a button saying “Report a Problem” and then proceed to type in an explanation as to what the problem is.
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However claims that this new feature would explain why pages keep getting reported or users sent to “FB jail” (this refers to Facebook punishing users by blocking some features for a certain period of time when they have been deemed to have violated Facebook’s terms of service) are false, since this “shake to report” feature is only for reporting technical issues within the app. Reporting content or users that violate Facebook’s terms of service is done through a different set of menus altogether that have nothing to do with shaking your phone.
From the Facebook Help page –
This process is for reporting something on Facebook that isn’t working correctly, like a broken feature or a payment issue.
Additionally, since a user needs to click an option and then type an explanation after shaking their phone, there is little chance that Facebook users will be reporting anything “by accident”.
As such, while it is true that such a “shake-to-report” option exists and is enabled by default, the claim that pages or users are being reported (and thrown in “FB Jail”) as some kind of inadvertent consequence of this feature is completely false.
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