FWIW I have contacted the Australian lawyer mentioned in the article linked in my previous post.
In regard to my question about their success rate, here is their response:
Thank you for reaching out to us. We’re sorry to hear that you are dealing with this terrible Facebook hack.
We have had 100% success in convincing Facebook to restore the disabled accounts of our clients who have been victim of the same hack that you have experienced. However, the process is quite involved and requires us to prepare lengthy statutory declarations evidencing clients’ identity, location, business identity and reputation, and relevance of Facebook to social / business identity. We also must note that despite our success with previous clients, we cannot guarantee that Facebook will agree to restore your account.
Facebook also requires that all correspondence regarding issues like this be sent by mail, in the post, to California. That is what we consider to be a deliberate obstacle to clients seeking redress.
If you would like to engage this firm to act on your behalf, we can assist. The cost of these matters is fixed at AUD$3,300 inclusive of GST.
I then asked them if they were going thru court or directly to Facebook and if they received any information regarding the reason behind the account being blocked. Here is their answer:
Each Facebook issue can be unique. The majority we deal with are where the account has been “hacked” and an inappropriate image posted. We have had matters where our clients do not know the exact reason for their account being suspended, however that has not seemed to make a difference when having the account reinstated.
We do not deal with law enforcement, we deal directly with Facebook’s attorneys and Facebook administration is copied in to all correspondence.
We generally do not receive any response from either the attorney’s nor Facebook, unless they require further information. Usually the account is just reinstated and the first we know about it is when our client calls us to thank us. We believe that this is something Facebook do on purpose.
We can request information from Facebook in regard to why your account was suspended but based on past experience we would not be hopeful of an answer.
We understand your reticence to engage us with no assurance that this could happen again. I can say we have had a number of commercial clients who retain commercial accounts with Facebook and have had the same issue. They have not experienced any repeat (as yet) since their accounts were reinstated, and that has been over a number of years.
The quoted fee is for a simple matter and we may need to revise any fees based on your individual circumstances. If you are interested in instructing us please send through details of how you use your account (commercial or private), whether you advertise through Facebook and the circumstances of your account being suspended. Once we have that information we would be able to give you a more informed estimate of costs.
If you have any other questions or would like a short chat with one of our commercial team please do not hesitate to get back in touch.
, indeed their pockets are deeper than mine but I am betting on the fact that a Chilean judge would love to make Chilean laws respected and have a go against GAFAM’s companies. Freedom of speech is a pretty touchy subject around here. It only takes a little touch of luck, FYI under the Chilean justice system, it is a judge who decides the verdict. There is no jury system here.