DUNEDIN, Fla. — UPDATE: After our story was published, we learned Facebook was restoring the arts center page, which an insider acknowledged was incorrectly removed. But, the art center's vice president and COO still can't actually post. Click here for the most recent update.
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It's a tale of David vs. Goliath – a local arts center against a multi-billion-dollar social media giant.
For a year now, the Dunedin Fine Art Center says it has been in "Facebook Jail" with no sign of being let out.
"This week marks the one-year anniversary of a 46-year-old Pinellas county cultural institution running into the buzz-saw of a social media giant’s algorithm-driven artificial-intelligence assassin," Ken Hannon, the arts center's vice president and COO, wrote in an eye-catching news release chronicling the bizarre situation.
The ordeal began on April 20, 2021, when Hannon made a Facebook post to the arts center's account. It was an attempt to celebrate the artwork of a group of students and members.
The photos, shown here, highlighted award-winning work – using every medium from wood to acrylic. Among them was an image of an artist's third-place photograph, which featured a nude female model's chest.
Within one minute, the arts center says it was hit with a seemingly-automated notice saying it had run afoul of Facebook's Community Standards. Moments after Hannon clicked the button to begin the review process, the arts center's official business page and the personal page of Hannon were both disabled.
The arts center doesn't think its post violated community standards, saying it believes the images should be allowed under Part III. Section 14 of Facebook's standards which "allow photographs of paintings, sculptures, and other art that depicts nude figures.”
In this case, what was posted was a photograph of a piece of art that did, in fact, depict a nude figure. To Hannon, and his team, this situation seemed really straightforward.
"We're not out there causing panic and mayhem on social media," Hannon told 10 Tampa Bay, explaining that his organization just wants to promote art and a sense of community.
However, Hannon says every effort to contact Facebook to get the account back was unsuccessful. So, the center decided to try to launch a new page.
That didn't work. It was unpublished.
And, on June 1, 2021, the situation worsened.
"More than 30 days have passed since your account was disabled, so this decision can't be reviewed," Facebook wrote in a follow-up message that seemed to indicate neither of the arts center's accounts would be coming back.
To the fine arts center, Facebook was its major marketing platform. With 12,500 followers before the primary page was shut down, the organization would use the platform for everything from organic posts to paid advertisements.
"We looked for phone numbers, scrubbed everything we could, including online groups," Hannon said of his efforts to try to find a contact at Facebook who could restore the account – his tool for marketing.
Members of the organization, who had relied on its Facebook page for information, were left confused and unable to send messages to the arts center through the platform.
Like other organizations hampered by the pandemic, Hannon and his team didn't need the extra pain of losing Facebook.
"We are certainly not growing at the same rate that we were," he told 10 Tampa Bay.
The Dunedin Fine Art Center has continued to try to recover its page, even as the months dragged on without word from Facebook.
Hannon says the center filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau and encouraged friends with commercial Facebook accounts to try reaching out to the social network's representatives on their behalf. Still nothing.
10 Tampa Bay reached out to Facebook's press team on Friday. The company did not provide a statement or interview. But, an insider acknowledged the arts center page was incorrectly removed and that it was being restored.
The page went back online on April 24. Its followers were not impacted. But, Hannon still cannot post to it.
For its part, the arts center is focused on offering the best experience it can for the 7,000 students it serves each year. Its main mission is education, with 21 studio classrooms teaching everything from carving to steelwork and traditional painting. Students have ranged in age from 4 to 97. And, each summer, the organization offers a large summer academy program.