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I am in a very frustrating situation. My article is under review for almost 8 months and I didn't hear any response. The average review time for the journal is 3 months. The journal is highly reputed journal, and based on the average time one can expect a response within 2.5 to 4.5 months.
I sent several emails to Editor in Chief (EiC) but I receive same answer, a kind of auto response. Moreover, according to journal policy I can not know the name or contact information of Associate Editor (AE).
The EiC is with me on various social media plateforms like Linkedin and facebook. We had few conversations on various topics, but I never told him about my article.
The question is can I discuss status of my article with EiC on social media in informal text messaging?
Is it ethical and fair? I want to expatiate the review process to same level as journal average time shows. I don't want to get an unfair advantage.

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    I ran into the handling editor of one of my papers at a conference, and I hadn't heard what was happening for a while so I reminded them that my paper was still awaiting decision. It turns out everything was done except telling me the result, due to busyness.
    – David Roberts
    Mar 16, 2018 at 11:00

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I personally don't think that neither "ethics" nor "fairness" are at stake here because if I understood your question correctly what you want to do is simply ask a question using an informal method of communication. I don't see how this can create an unfair advantage to you or even raise ethical issues since the question alone doesn't mean things will get done more quickly/unfairly. You simply want a status update on your paper.

However, I also don't see how such course of action can help you. You should also take into consideration that these things to take time and unless you have a pretty urgent reason, it might not be worth asking it again. Sometimes the EiC is having trouble finding a suitable reviewer for your paper or the reviewer itself isn't finding the time to read your paper (keep in mind that they're usually invited to do so, without any remuneration), sometimes older issues of the paper are delayed... my point is: whatever is going on, it isn't good for the EiC either and he's probably already taking the measures necessary.

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