DUNEDIN, Fla. — The local David vs. Goliath saga continued this week with more questions than answers as Facebook continued to prevent a Tampa Bay area arts center from posting anything to its own account.
10 Tampa Bay previously told readers about how Facebook, in April 2021, had banned the Dunedin Fine Art Center for posting an artist's award-winning photograph that featured a nude female model's chest.
Ken Hannon, the arts center's vice president and COO, has spent more than a year trying to get out of "Facebook Jail," as he puts it, over that one image.
There was no advanced warning. Just a total ban.
In fact, it was only about a minute after Hannon first posted the photo in question that he received a seemingly-automated notice saying the post had run afoul of Facebook's Community Standards. Moments after he clicked the button to begin the review process back in 2021, the arts center's official business page and Hannon's personal page were both disabled.
He doesn't believe he did anything wrong, saying the artistic image 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.”
Facebook confirmed to 10 Tampa Bay that the arts center's account was incorrectly removed and has since been restored. But that's not the whole story.
Here's the problem: Facebook still won't let Hannon post to the page. So, he's got his arts center page back. He just can't use it.
And, Facebook repeatedly hasn't responded to his attempts to get help. He heard back from them when we stepped in.
On April 28, a Facebook representative told 10 Tampa Bay there should not be any restrictions on the arts center's account. But, despite that assertion, there are.
"You have been temporarily blocked from performing this action," a Facebook error message says when Hannon tries to post to the Dunedin Fine Art Center page.
10 Tampa Bay followed up with Meta's Policy Communications team in April and again in May. On Tuesday, Facebook doubled down in its insistence that there were no longer any blocks on the arts center page or Hannon's account. However, the social network vowed to triple check.
It's unclear if that triple check happened. Facebook did not reply after that.
But one thing is clear: Hannon still can't post to the arts center page.
The situation has frustrated Hannon and his team members, who had long used Facebook to market the Dunedin Fine Art Center. They'd run paid ad campaigns and also connect with their thousands of followers through organic posts.
Followers who had relied on the Facebook page for important information were left without a way to send messages to the arts center through the platform. Like other small businesses and local 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," Hannon previously told 10 Tampa Bay.
While Hannon just wants the ability to post back without any trouble, he actually may have Florida law on his side.
Last year, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill cracking down on big tech companies. SB 7072 would allow Floridians to sue social media giants that are not transparent with content moderation practices.
The state was sued over the law, and a judge later blocked it from being enforced. But, the governor is appealing the preliminary injunction. Just last month, lawyers representing the DeSantis administration were in federal court to argue before a panel of judges why the injunction should be lifted.
If the injunction is lifted and the law takes effect, Facebook may be on the wrong side of it.
10 Tampa Bay asked the governor's office about this situation specifically.
"Without knowing all the specifics of this case, it sounds like the company that was deplatformed would have standing to sue under this law – if the law were in effect," DeSantis spokesperson Christina Pushaw told 10 Tampa Bay in an April 25 email. "The law requires tech platforms to be transparent about their terms of service and to enforce their rules fairly. Banning an account for breaking a rule that the account did not actually break doesn’t seem like a fair enforcement of the platform’s rules."
While the governor himself hasn't commented directly on the Dunedin situation, he has repeatedly expressed his support for the big tech law and the rights of Floridians to sue for being de-platformed.
"And the theory is simple," DeSantis said in an April 19 news conference. "[Big tech companies] advertise as being open platforms. They advertise as you being able to express yourself and communicate with other people and yet their censorship decisions and the platforming decisions are based on viewpoint discrimination."
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