Black Bull pubs in Donington and Ruskington among those to have pages removed by Facebook
Landlords of pubs with the same name have described the ‘major negative impact’ after their respective online business accounts were suddenly removed by a social media giant.
The Black Bull pubs at Donington and Ruskington were both been affected when their Facebook business pages disappeared in early September - with a notification citing ‘copyright infringement’ as the reason.
Julie and Lee Loach run the Donington Black Bull and they rely on the page for online bookings. It has recently been reinstated - six weeks after it ‘vanished’.
Ruskington Black Bull owners, Mo Alexander, Haris Zafar and James Flynn, lost their page without warning and have had no contact from Meta - the organisation that owns Facebook - for weeks. They have had to now set-up a new page but have lost all the followers, content, pictures and customer reviews — information vital for modern businesses to thrive and attract people through the door.
Donington’s Mrs Loach said: “I am anxious that other businesses get their pages back as we know we have done nothing wrong.
“It is not fair and it has been distressing. It has had massive implications for us - losing the bookings I had pending and I couldn’t contact anybody for any unresolved issues.
“Eighty percent of our bookings come through Facebook and we are pretty active on it so have many followers.”
The page surprisingly reappeared last week restoring their 8,300 followers but at the cost of some 20 lost bookings.
Mrs Loach said: “We have now got the page back - it just reappeared.
“My message to the other businesses is don't lose hope - continue to appeal - the link can be repaired.”
See also: The Secret Drinker reviews The Black Bull in Donington
Mrs Loach then learnt that other Black Bull pubs - including The Black Bull at Kirton - had received the same copyright issue notification and believes that there had been some kind of online sweep wiping the business name.
Mo, James and Haris have run the Black Bull in Ruskington, whose history dates back to 1842, for just under a year and were forced to set-up a new page.
The business owners have spoken of their frustration in trying to contact Meta and have had no success in the page being reinstalled. A month ago, they gave up trying.
Meta’s communications have also increased their frustrations.
Mr Alexander said: “We reached out for assistance, but it feels like our concerns have gone unheard.
“From an organisation like Meta, I expect clearer communication and guidance on how to address the situation, but unfortunately, that hasn’t been the case.
“In fact, they were unable to locate the page and then said they will call us in ‘30 minutes’ but it’s been a number of weeks now and still no call and we are no longer getting responses to our emails.”
They have complied with Meta’s request for information which included sending their tenancy agreement along with screenshots of photos of customers.
Mr Zafar said: “We feel we have been sabotaged and have given up as we can’t get our page back.
“Everyone uses social media and Facebook offered a cheaper version and gave us great coverage.
“We paid for marketing campaigns on a few occasions and we were proud of how our business was progressing.”
Their new page now has 901 followers and they also revamped their website at the same time.
Mr Zafar said: “We urgently needed to get a page as business really slowed down.
“That is when I realised the influence of social media.
“Being a small business owner the littlest things make a big difference.
“We never expected anything like this to happen and we feel like we are held to ransom.”
Meta’s press office has been contacted for comment.
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