Facebook have shut down an unofficial fan page for Manchester United footballer Cristiano Ronaldo. The fan page, which has not been endorsed by Ronaldo, had amassed nearly three million fans and received around 500,000 visitors each month.
However it is against Facebook’s terms and conditions to operate an unofficial fan page, so the page has been closed.
The page was setup and updated by Kunwar Ali, who is 25 years old and from Pakistan. He is upset by the decision of Facebook to close the page:
I used to spend six or seven hours on Facebook every day posting updates about Cristiano and have done for the last year.
Everything is gone and I now have nothing.
Kunwar was told by a friend on Monday that he wasn’t able to access the fan page, which was the first that Kunwar knew of the problem.
I don’t know why it was removed. It could be a lot of reasons.
Facebook is quite clear in its terms and conditions on the subject of unofficial fan pages, stating:
Fake Pages and unofficial ‘fan pages’ are a violation of our terms of use. If you create an unauthorized page or violate our terms in any way, your Facebook account may be disabled.
Kunwar has been in contact with representatives of the footballer to see if they wanted to take the Facebook page over, but at the time they weren’t interested, commenting:
I even offered them the chance to take it over, for it to become an official page but they said it wasn’t something they were looking at.
Facebook pages, as Kunwar has demonstrated, are a great way of attracting followers and reaching new contacts and potential clients. However it’s important to know how Facebook’s terms and conditions affect your efforts before you begin, as losing something that has built up nearly three million followers after spending a year working on it is a terrible waste.
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