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If you’ve noticed that we’ve been a little quiet on the FolioFox Instagram account as of late or well…that you couldn’t find us in the first place, that’s because we don’t have an Instagram account at all. Without warning in early September, Meta suspended FolioFox’s Instagram profile with no explanation. After attempting to verify the account through Meta’s verification process, our Instagram was then unfairly and permanently banned with no reason, support or justification offered by the social media mega company other than a false accusation that we allegedly breached their ‘account integrity’ community guidelines.
For small businesses, operating an Instagram account is a vital marketing tool in an attention economy monopolised by Meta. Without our account, not only are we restricted from reaching our audience, but the advertising costs and sponsor partnerships we have nurtured through the platform are all for nothing. Without the Instagram account we’ve spent the last year and many dollars building, we haven’t just lost a foot in the door of the market - we’ve lost access to our entire community.
Meta Permanently Deletes Accounts Without Evidence
As the current situation stands, we’ve lodged a case with Meta's support team, the Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman (ASBFEO) and submitted a complaint to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC).
The deletion of the FolioFox Instagram account by Meta has come at a frustrating time in the Melbourne printing and publishing calendar, having occurred just days before we were set to participate at the Emerging Writers’ Festival’s National Writers’ Conference via a small press panel we were sponsoring. Meta left us with not a trace of the most valuable tool we have to connect to fellow writers, printers, publishers and community members, and all with no warning whatsoever.
Our brand manager, Tracy Yong, has described the entire ordeal as no less than “brutal”. “We have lost our primary means of engaging with the market, and have lost all the content we have ever posted on Instagram,” she says. “We don’t have the option of opting out from marketing on Meta, due to its monopoly share of the attention economy. We use valuable time and resources to create content to feed their engine, yet we are at the mercy of their automated audits that can delete our accounts with absolutely no reasoning or justification.”
Bringing The Printing And Publishing Communities Closer
While Meta’s unexplained deletion of FolioFox’s Instagram profile has been a thorn in the side of our attempts to connect local printing and publishing communities in Melbourne through social media, it’s clear that we are not the only ones who have been victim to the frighteningly flippant power that the social media conglomerate has over the indie publishing industry’s marketing abilities. “It has been incredibly stressful,” Tracy from FolioFox says. “I really hope no other print business has to go through this.” Unfortunately, what is being made clear in this series of events is that this isn’t the first time that Meta has shut down an unoffending Instagram account without justification, and if nothing is done to reign in the obscene power of this social media platform, it sadly won’t be the last.
Thankfully, Australia’s printing and publishing industries are more interested in supporting the health of the sector than allowing an international company to tear it apart. On September 16, book industry news website Books+Publishing reported on FolioFox’s case alongside a collection of other instances in which authors, publishers and printers have had their Instagram accounts temporarily disabled or permanently deleted without explanation. Graphic arts and printing industry management magazine Print 21 followed suit on September 18 with a story on FolioFox’s Instagram account deletion, covering how rampant this issue has become in the age of social media monopolies.
According to the ACCC, this problem has been repeatedly flagged in its Digital Platform and Services Inquiry - more and more small businesses have found themselves locked out of their social media and other digital accounts, with no access to a fair or just process of review once the digital media company has made its decision. While it saddens us that FolioFox is not the only small business who has been caught up unfairly in this situation - with no help or support from the authoritative media company that has put us in this mess to begin with - we appreciate the ongoing coverage and support from key printing and publishing industry voices like Print 21 and Books+Publishing in this battle against one of the most powerful media conglomerates in the world.
It’s clear that this isn’t an isolated case. Many Australian small businesses have been blocked from accessing one of the few and most important tools at their disposal for marketing and sharing their business. The more power that monopolies like Meta reign over our digital spaces, the less power is in the hands of small businesses, consumers and everyday people. At the end of the day, community is more valuable than any digital media company - it’s just a shame that modern communities have little choice but to operate in those company’s digital spaces.
From Business-As-Usual to Obscurity: A Timeline Of FolioFox’s Instagram Erasure
- September 5: FolioFox’s Instagram account gets suspended and completes Meta’s verification process.
- September 6: FolioFox is informed that the account still did not meet the platform’s “community standards”. FolioFox opens a case with Meta’s support team on Facebook, providing all available evidence to prove that they have not breached the “account integrity” community guidelines. The case is passed to an internal specialised team for review. Despite almost daily check-in’s, there have been no updates from them.
- September 11: FolioFox lodges a case with the ASBFEO for a digital platform dispute with Meta, in a bid to restore the account.
- September 12 to 13: FolioFox sponsored a small press panel at Emerging Writers’ Festival National Writers’ Conference without being able to capture the visibility of sponsoring an event.
- September 14: FolioFox submits a data protection enquiry to Meta's Privacy Operations Team to request the personal information shared on Instagram as per Australian Privacy Principles (APP 12), which states that an organisation or agency must give you access to your personal information when you request it, except where the law allows them to refuse your request. Despite explaining that FolioFox cannot access the usual Instagram privacy data request form as they cannot log in to Instagram, the Meta Privacy Operations Team replies stating that they consider this matter closed and will not be monitoring any responses to this email.
- September 16: Books+Publishing reports on author and printer social media accounts, including FolioFox’s, being unfairly shut down by Meta. The ASBFEO confirms that our case has been lodged with Meta for review, but that if Meta refuses to re-instate the account, they are unable to request any further review of the issue.
- September 18: Print21 reports on the unfair permanent disabling of FolioFox’s Instagram account and the fight to restore it.
- October 9 to 11: FolioFox is set to sponsor the Dandenong Ranges Literary Festival without access to marketing and community connectivity opportunities via Instagram.
We will keep you updates on how this issue continues to play out with Meta, and sincerely hope to connect with the community on Instagram again very soon.
To learn more about the local book printing industry and get started on your writing journey, get in touch with our team today. We're here to help you navigate the evolving world of indie book printing with confidence.
