How to Stay Connected with Us Outside Facebook

Important Announcement – Please Read

Dear members,

Our Facebook group has grown into an incredible community of nearly 100,000 people. As a registered charity, Citizens Advice Spain is proud to offer accurate, free information to help those living in or moving to Spain.

In our case, a recent post contained an article on how to exchange your UK driving licence for a Spanish one. The image accompanying the article was a clearly marked sample driving licence, which was not a real document. However, Facebook’s system wrongly flagged this as a violation, possibly interpreting it as an attempt to share or promote false ID documents. As a result one of our volunteers was banned for a day and our group has been restricted, and we have been threatened with permanent disabling of the group.

This was a mistake by Facebook’s automated system, but sadly, the appeal was rejected, and no human reviewed our explanation.

We want to make our members aware that the restrictions placed on our Facebook group are the result of a mistake made by Facebook’s automated system (AI), not a human review. These systems are designed to detect content that violates community standards—but they often misinterpret legitimate content, such as clearly marked sample documents or educational images, as a violation.

We’ve also learned that a large Facebook group with over 300,000 members, which is officially run by the police, was also temporarily banned, again, most likely due to a similar error by Facebook’s algorithm. If a well-established group managed by law enforcement can be wrongly penalised, it highlights just how unreliable and risky these automated systems have become. There is no guarantee of protection or fair appeal, even for the most credible sources.

There are others affected with their posts being removed from their pages and groups.  Seems no coincidence that this is suddenly affecting many users of Facebook.

This is why we are taking proactive steps to protect our own group and ensure that our followers can continue accessing trusted information.

What this means:

Facebook has now placed restrictions on our group. We have been warned that if another post is flagged,  even incorrectly,  the group could be permanently disabled.

This would mean you could lose access to the group, and we would lose our ability to reach you here, which is why we’re taking steps to protect the community and make sure you can still get the help you need.

How to stay connected with us:

Please make sure you can still reach us outside Facebook:

• Visit our official website:
  www.citizensadvice.org.es
• Email us directly for advice or support:
  Ask for Advice
• Our Facebook page
• For members who would like to use a personal consultant with a one to one service, where your emails are answered within 24 hours, consider owning a Spain info Card: Spain info
• Join our page

If Facebook ever disables the group, you’ll still be able to find our trusted guidance and contact us via our website.

Going forward:

• We’ll be posting keywords from each topic instead of direct website links when sharing articles. so you can easily search the article on our site without triggering Facebook’s filters.
  (For example: “Search: UK licence exchange” on our website)
• We’re also reviewing images used in our posts to avoid any further errors from Facebook’s automated systems.

Members posts may not be approved for now as many innocent posts are removed for allegedly going against community standard’s.  For now you may contact us by using the Ask for Advice section on our website or, if you need ongoing personal consultations, from a secure site,  become an owner of the Spain info card.

Thank you for your understanding and continued support. We’re here for you — and by staying connected through our website, you’ll always know where to find us.

— The Citizens Advice Spain Team

Please note: The information provided is based upon our understanding of current legislation. It is not legal advice but is provided freely to enable you to be properly informed. We recommend that if you are considering taking action, you should seek professional advice.