Hacker hijacks page for grievers, traumatizes half a million followers

SEATTLE - June 24, 2019 - PRLog -- When Angie Cartwright's mother died suddenly in 2010, Angie was traumatized and felt alone in her grief. To cope with her loss, she turned to social media to connect with others who were also grieving the death of a loved one. Not finding what she was looking for, she created Grief the Unspoken in 2011, a Facebook page for grievers—people just like her—and found her calling.

Over the years, the page has grown to 550,000 followers, 24 open and closed groups, with a weekly reach of over 2.5 million. Five admins, all grief professionals, stepped up to help manage it all.

With such a large following, the page was invited to participate in Facebook's new service, Fan Subscription.

All that changed on May 9, when the unthinkable happened—a hacker hijacked ownership of the page built just for grievers.

Angie nor her admins were no longer in control.

Within the hour, disturbing and gross videos began popping up, traumatizing followers. Admins immediately reported it to Facebook and, given the sensitive nature of the page, expected Facebook to take action by day's end.

But nothing happened.

Their pleas went unanswered.

Each time a traumatizing video was posted by the hacker, it was deleted by admins and then reported to Facebook, hoping for help.

Crickets.

Followers joined in the efforts to get Facebook's attention.

No response.

On June 15, the hacker contacted one of the admins.

"I want to make a deal, don't delete my posts if you still want to post on the page, otherwise I will delete all the admins."

The hijacker made good on his threat and on June 24, removed the admins who spent years ministering to followers around the clock.

The number of hijacking reports led Facebook to revoke the Fan Subscription invitation yet continues to ignore continued requests to remove the hacker.

The page designed to serve those with traumatized hearts has now lost over 30,000 followers.

The admins of Grief the Unspoken are now taking to social media to protest Facebook's lack of response, and to raise awareness so other sensitive pages don't fall victim to the same hacker.

As of today, the half million followers of Grief the Unspoken are still waiting for Facebook to take action.