Kekkilä says on Facebook that its yard and garden discussion group has ended up being taken over by an outside party. The background is a human error on the part of the company’s team.
Kekkila, who founded the popular Facebook group, is being asked for money to restore the management rights of the group. Adobe Stock
Kekkilä, known for its garden products, says on social media that the story of its Kekkilä Garden and Yard Facebook group under company ownership has ended.
– Despite numerous attempts, we have not been able to get the group back under our control, it says on Facebook.
Human error
According to the company, its Facebook group of approximately 140,000 users had ended up being controlled by an outsider at the end of November.
We got into a special situation as a result of human error. The Facebook group had been left without an administrator for some time, which made it possible for the maintenance rights of the group to end up in the hands of an outsider.
Facebook tells on their support pagesthat if the group has no administrator at all, Facebook can suggest to some users to become the administrator of that group based on “certain signals”.
Such signals include the member’s current level of participation and whether the member is an administrator in other Facebook groups.
The new administrator wants money
The person who had grabbed the maintenance rights of the Kekkilä Facebook group has not been willing to return the management right back to the company.
– He has expressed that he will hand over the maintenance role of the group back only in return for compensation, Kekkilä said in his previous Facebook update at the beginning of December.
Kekkilä has not agreed to the demand, as it would violate Facebook’s community rules, which prohibit the trading of group maintenance rights. the BBC according to the ban has been in effect at least since 2018.
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Facebook doesn’t help
Kekkilä says in his publication that he has been in contact with Facebook support, but no help has been offered.
– Unfortunately for Facebook’s support, our problem is just one among millions, and it has not received the attention we need, the company complains.
Be careful with the content
The group’s original name was Kekkilä Yard and Garden. The new admin has changed the group name and it is currently Garden and Yard.
Kekkilä is worried that because it is a large group, not everyone is necessarily aware of the change of ownership.
– Everyone can decide at their own discretion whether they want to remain a member of the group, but we can no longer guarantee that it will not be used for wrong purposes.
Since the new administrator has tried to profit from the situation financially, Kekkilä urges the members remaining in the group to keep an eye on the content shared in the group.
– The administrator can use the group for wrong purposes or, for example, sell it on to parties who misuse it. The name and purpose of the group can be changed at any time. This allows the group to be used to distribute junk content.