Meta had to be shamed into restoring queer club pages on Facebook and Instagram

This story originally appeared on Out.

A months-long struggle by queer nightclubs across Los Angeles — as well as one historic venue in San Francisco — to regain access to Meta's social media platforms is finally over, according to the Los Angeles Times. But critical questions remain unanswered.

Like, why did the powers that control pages on Facebook and Instagram take down the pages of Club Cobra, Club Chico, Catch One, Club Tempo, The Stud and that of an L.A. promoter of a transgender-focused club night in the first place?

"Representatives for Meta, reached for comment, did not offer a statement or elaborate on the reasons for the suspensions," writer August Brown wrote in the story published Tuesday.

Club owner Marty Sokol told the newspaper the Instagram page for Club Cobra vanished on New Year's Day, and the one for his other space, Club Chico, disappeared in May, without a warning or an explanation.

But that wasn't the worst part for Sokol, Brown reported. "A.I.-driven search engines listed his clubs as permanently closed. Longtime regulars texted him condolences. By June 1, he said, every single one of his club's Instagram pages had been suspended, along with around a dozen pages from his staff and affiliated club promoters."

“Your audience goes to look for you, and you are gone,” Sokol told the paper. “For 15 years we developed hundreds of thousands of followers who we were able to build community with. Then without warning or cause, they ripped away our ability to communicate with our community.”

According to the L.A. Times, this happened to several prominent nightclubs in California, and many of them are popular among queer clubgoers of color. The result of losing their presence on Facebook and Instagram was a significant drop in attendance, leaving club owners unable to reach their fans and their businesses in a vacuum of digital invisibility.

State political leaders took action, fearing Meta's moves could devastate queer nightlife. When The Stud, considered San Francisco's oldest gay bar, lost its Instagram page in July, California State. Sen. Scott Wiener blamed "right-wing extremists" and took aim at Meta via his account on X: "Meta should reverse this ban immediately."

The social media giant restored the Stud’s account, but never explained why the page was suspended in the first place, according to the report. Assemblymember Mark González was able to get Meta to restore the account of Catch One, the Mid-City music venue that was founded as Los Angeles’ first nightclub for Black lesbians.

Catch One, the legendary Los Angeles venue founded by Jewel Thais-Williams in 1973, grew from a neighborhood disco into one of the most important institutions in Black LGBTQ+ history. Catch One, the legendary Los Angeles venue founded by Jewel Thais-Williams in 1973, grew from a neighborhood disco into one of the most important institutions in Black LGBTQ+ history.

Club owner Mitch Edelson said Catch One’s Facebook page — and access to the ad platform for both Facebook and Instagram — disappeared without warning in May.

“We got this email saying ‘Your page is suspended,’ which was a nice way of saying banned. We were not able to run ads, which is a key way that we’re able to reach our audience,” said Edelson. “It was like you’re talking to a robot or someone who has no idea like what our club means to people, or the fact that we’re obviously a legitimate business." He estimated that without Instagram and Facebook posts and ads, ticket sales were down as much as 80 percent, until González stepped in.

But for out trans promoter Audry Cobra, who hosts Transfix one night a week at Club Cobra, the queer Latino bar in North Hollywood, no politicos came to her aid after Meta took down her two professional pages a year ago. “It feels very targeted,” she told the newspaper.

'For us trans people, social media has been a community of creators, part of our livelihoods, and a blessing," said Cobra. "To have a place made so inviting, then to not be wanted, it's so sudden and infuriating." She said nothing that happens at Transdix is over-sexualized. "It's for people that are interested in trans people, and for girls to have a place to be themselves. We've been there for decades and employ many trans girls who don't have means."

The Times reported that after it contacted Meta for information about Audry Cobra's suspension as well as the ones impacting Club Cobra and Club Chico and their venues’ staff, all saw their Instagram pages restored last weekend. But Club Tempo, a vaquero-themed gay dance club in East Hollywood, still has not seen its official Facebook page restored. It still has an active Instagram account. For now.

So why is this happening? As the paper reported, Meta has since March powered its content moderation with A.I., beginning with the rollout of new content-flagging software after laying-off thousands of human employees who worked in that field.

"There could be a community standards issue, but it could also just be a scan of the crowd dancing and having fun. Or spam because the bots don’t like your text," said Sokol. "Nothing is specific and they don’t tell you what the problem is, and you can't respond."