Some Oculus Quest 2 Owners are Getting Banned From Using Their Headsets

The Oculus Quest 2, the first Oculus headset to require new users to log in with a Facebook account rather than an Oculus account, started shipping out to customers this week. But thanks to that Facebook requirement, it might be weeks until some owners actually get to use one of the best VR headsets. That’s because, as UploadVR reported yesterday, some Oculus Quest 2 owners are claiming that their Facebook accounts are being disabled before they can actually log-in to and activate their device.

Oculus announced earlier this August that, starting this October, “anyone using an Oculus device for the first time will need to log in with a Facebook account.” This means Oculus Quest 2 buyers who don’t have Facebook accounts either have to create new ones or reactivate old ones to actually use their purchase. The problem comes, then, in some users getting almost instantaneous suspensions from Facebook when trying to sign up and needing to wait weeks to appeal them.

Yesterday, Oculus support tweeted out that it is aware of the issue, which prompted numerous reports of difficulty from users. One Reddit user complained that “I logged into Facebook’s website to lock down my profile, as I had no intention of using the social media site more than was needed, and within minutes of merging accounts and changing profile settings my account was banned.” On Twitter, another user posted the account denial screen that some are seeing, which says “You can’t use Facebook because your account, or activity on it, didn’t follow our community standards. We have already reviewed this decision and it can’t be reversed.”
 

 Oculus’ support post asks users seeing this message to send a support ticket to Oculus, but another Quest 2 buyer said that Oculus’ response to their ticket simply asked them to refer to Facebook’s help center.

Despite the Facebook account suspension message’s wording, you can appeal a Facebook ban, but it requires sending the website a picture of your driver’s license or some other photographic proof of identity. But the appeals process can be slow, thanks to what is likely human review, which means that Quest 2 owners who are facing difficulty may have to wait a while for their device to be anything other than a paperweight. 

The difficulty here is that Facebook has a unique “real-name” policy tied to its accounts, which asks users to register accounts under the “name they go by in everyday life.” The platform’s hope is that each user will only have one account, which represents who they actually are. And after pressure from the political sphere to crack down on accounts run by bots, the website has only become stricter on who it lets create accounts. So, unlike Twitter or Reddit, signing up for Facebook isn't as easy as just linking an email and pressing go.

This poses a problem when the service essentially acts as a key to start up your new $299 device. 

Facebook Vice President of Augmented and Virtual Reality Andrew Bosworth also addressed the issue on his Instagram.

"We are working really quickly through those [suspension cases] and resolving all those issues that come up." But in the meantime, he suggested the following advice:

"I think people should continue to make sure their Facebook accounts are in good standing before they buy the headset."