Some Facebook feeds seemed a bit lonely on Monday without the daily fulfillment of The Shade Room’s posts. The popular celebrity gossip and new media platform’s Facebook page with over 4.4 million followers was taken down by Facebook without an immediate explanation. Onlookers quickly took notice including Harvard’s Nieman Journalism Lab.
@NiemanLab @laurahazardowen it was done by Facebook but no reason was given
— TheShadeRoom (@TheShadeRoom) April 18, 2016
Founder and employees of the popular outlet denied comments to different news outlets, but Jezebel updated their original report by adding a Facebook rep said the reason for the take down was due to the account violating Facebook’s community standards. This is not the first time The Shade Room has encountered violations from a social media heavyweight. Last year, Buzzfeed reported that the media company had an issue with Instagram as well and eventually resolved the issue as a “mistake.”
Witnessing a page removal of this capacity can be nerve-wrecking for other sites that utilize social media outreach sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Many publishing companies rely on distribution on Facebook and having their page removed temporarily or permanently can affect their brand tremendously.
all the publishers who say they'd start their next media company as a Facebook page take note… https://t.co/EgRX1yg6oR
— Bryce Roberts (@bryce) April 18, 2016
The Facebook rep that spoke to Jezebel said The Shade Room can go through an appeals process to have their page restored if that is what they wish to do. No other statements from The Shade Room have been made regarding this on any of their other platforms. What do you think? Let us know in the comments below.
READ NEXT: Buzzfeed video apologizes for “27 questions black people have for black people” fail