Longtime Orlando LGBTQ+ bar Savoy regained access to its own Instagram Thursday, about 10 days after Meta wiped the account following Pride posts.
Savoy was alerted on Oct. 20 its Instagram account was flagged for violating Meta’s “human exploitation” policy. In other words: human trafficking.
No specific post was singled out, but the alert came just two days after Orlando’s Come Out With Pride celebration, which Savoy posted photos from.
Owner Brandon Llewellyn told us he appealed the same day. Instagram told him it had reviewed Savoy’s account, “found we hadn’t broken any rules, apologized for getting it wrong, and told us we could use it again.”
But that didn’t happen until about 10 days later, an eternity for a small business. Savoy posted to its reinstated account Thursday announcing the account is back up.
“Small businesses shouldn’t need press coverage and elected officials to get a fair review. We’re asking Meta for real human oversight, transparency on why accounts are flagged, and a process that actually works,” the post reads. “We’ll keep speaking up for the queer spaces still fighting to get their accounts back.”
This was and is not an isolated incident.
Also on Oct. 20, two days after the Come Out With Pride festival weekend, LGBTQ+ bar Anthem Orlando had its account, @anthemorlando, suspended with no explanation. The suspension, again, came just after it posted photos of its Pride celebration. It was also the bar’s one-year anniversary, owner Mike Vacirca said.
The posts show people dancing, hugging, posing for photos wearing rainbow-adorned outfits.
“There was no picture in there that’s even remotely off of G-rated,” Vacirca said.
Anthem, however, got its account back after about a week of trying to contact a human on Meta’s team, which is increasingly reliant on AI, and calling for action on Threads.
Small businesses, especially those operating as safe queer spaces in red states like Florida, are often reliant on Instagram for sharing event information and getting people in the door. Llewellyn and Vacirca, like many others, are aware a suspended Instagram account could lead to fewer customers, which means less revenue. And during a time that is already difficult for both small businesses in downtown Orlando and LGBTQ+ businesses in Florida, dips in revenue are increasingly difficult to bounce back from.
Meta this year has wiped the accounts of queer-led and -friendly businesses across the country. Orlando gay bar Stiffy’s Instagram account, @stiffysorlando, has been marked “unavailable” since Oct. 24.
In St. Petersburg, four queer spaces — Cocktail, The Wet Spot, The Ball and Mari Jean Hotel — have reported losing Facebook and Instagram accounts this year. Cocktail, The Wet Spot and The Ball all still have accounts marked as “unavailable” as of Friday afternoon. Mari Jean Hotel’s Facebook and Instagram feeds are up and running.
Anthem and Savoy’s account removals come just two weeks after Austin, Texas-based gay bar Rain on 4th told Chron that Meta disabled its Instagram account without explanation.
Owner Scott Neal told Chron that most of the posts flagged by Meta did not include nudity and largely featured G-rated photos of drag queens, Them reports.
Queer spaces Wilka’s Sports Bar in New York and both The Stud and Beaux in San Francisco both reported losing accounts at Meta’s discretion. They’ve all been reinstated since.
Meta does not explicitly admit targeting LGBTQ+ people or LGBTQ+ business accounts as a product of policy, but in early 2025, the social media giant updated its automated moderation systems, ad-targeting and “DEI parameters.” It has since increasingly suspended and restricted gay accounts, Human Rights Campaign reports.
