“They can just get rid of you:” Queer nightclubs in L.A. get erased from Facebook & Instagram
The bars saw their pages reinstated after outcry.
Mark
Queer bar owners in L.A. and San Francisco have found themselves in a Kafkesque nightmare. While their venues remain open, Instagram and Facebook have either scrubbed their pages or say they’re permanently closed.
The errors take a calamitous toll on their finances, their mental health and the LGBTQ+ community at large.
The L.A. Times recently published an exposé on the bizarre phenomenon, which has primarily affected bars that cater to the Black and brown LGBTQ+ community. One of the owners, Mark Sokol, said he woke up on New Year’s Day to find out that his club’s IG page was taken down.
Just 12 hours earlier, Club Cobra in North Hollywood was filled with revelry. But that morning, it was like it never existed.
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After months of contacting Meta, he had no resolution. In May, pages for his other nightclub, located in Montebello, disappeared as well.
“Your audience goes to look for you, and you are gone,” he said. “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.”
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When the L.A. Times reached Meta execs for comment, they didn’t elaborate or provide a reasoning for the errant page closures. But there are some theories.
This year, Meta has largely turned its content moderation over to AI after laying off thousands of employees. Even AI platforms used at the highest levels of the Pentagon make mistakes: CNN reported this week that a false AI intelligence report nearly caused the U.S. military to fire on a Chinese ship.
It’s conceivable that IG’s and Facebook’s AI systems are error prone. “There could be a community standards issue, but it could also just be a scan of the crowd dancing and having fun,” said Sokol.
With AI in charge of both removals and appeals, there is often no recourse. Closed pages severely impact bars and nightclubs, which already operate on minuscule margins.
Just this week, Precinct, a popular bar in DTLA, had its pages shut down too.
The club’s GM, Jeremy Lucido, shared the news on his personal IG. He reminded people that LGBTQ+ spaces are especially vulnerable to “bad-faith reports and bad actors.”
That’s what happened with The Stud, believed to be the oldest gay bar in San Francisco. Located in the SoMa neighborhood, it was falsely flagged for human trafficking in July, right before Dore Alley, one of the most popular events of the year.
“Obviously the most beloved gay bar in San Francisco isn’t engaging in human trafficking. So that algorithm needs a little tweak,” the bar’s co-owner told Mission Local in July.
California State Senator Scott Wiener also spoke out.
After outcry from politicians and SF tech execs, The Stud’s pages were reinstated.
The affected L.A. bars saw their pages return when the Times and a state Assemblymember contacted Meta on their behalf.
Audry Cobra, a party promoter and host of a trans-focused nightclub called Transfix, said the most marginalized members of the community are especially susceptible to Big Tech’s whims.
“I don’t know if Meta’s A.I. decided to wake up and be like, ‘We don’t like you,’ but anything trans-related feels targeted today,” she said. “Once they decide you’re not welcome, they recognize your face, your name, where you live, who you follow. They can just get rid of you.”
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