has restored accounts belonging to LGBTQ+ venues, publications and community figures following a series of suspensions across the US, Europe and Brazil.
The latest reinstatements involve Los Angeles queer venues Club Cobra and Club Chico, as well as transgender performer and promoter Audry Cobra and staff associated with the clubs. Their pages returned last weekend after the contacted Meta about the removals. Meta did not tell the newspaper why the accounts had been suspended.
Club Cobra owner Marty Sokol first discovered his venue’s Instagram page had been removed on New Year’s Day. Club Chico followed in May and, by June, accounts connected to his venues and around a dozen staff members and promoters had also been suspended.
What happened to the suspended LGBTQ+ Instagram accounts?
“Your audience goes to look for you, and you are gone,” Sokol told the newspaper.
Catch One, which was founded as Los Angeles’ first nightclub for Black lesbians, separately regained its Facebook page on 10 September after California Assemblymember Mark González contacted Meta. Owner Mitch Edelson estimated ticket sales had fallen by as much as 80 per cent while the venue was unable to use its usual Facebook and Instagram promotion.
The cases follow similar account restorations elsewhere.
Earlier this year, LGBTQ+ publication BUTT Magazine joined organisations including COC Nederland, The Queer Agenda and several queer venues in taking action over Meta suspensions in Europe. A coalition represented by law firm Bureau Brandeis sent a formal demand to Meta in May seeking changes to how accounts were blocked. Most of the affected accounts have since returned, according to Amsterdam-based Waag Futurelab.
In Brazil, LGBTQ+ news and culture platform GayBlogBR was among at least five prominent queer accounts suspended in May. The affected pages had a combined following of more than 1.7 million, according to Folha de S.Paulo. Several were restored after Meta was contacted by the newspaper and faced calls to reinstate them.
What other LGBTQ+ accounts has Meta restored?
The incidents have not been limited to publications. The Stud in San Francisco had its Instagram restored after its page was reportedly flagged for human-trafficking content in July. Meta did not subsequently explain why it had been suspended.
For affected account holders, however, the restorations have left questions about why pages disappeared and how future suspensions will be handled.
In December, more than 50 queer advocacy, abortion access and reproductive health organisations accused the company of restricting or removing accounts across Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp in what campaigners described as “one of the biggest waves of censorship” on Meta’s platforms.