17c起草社区

Midsumma Festival, one of Australia’s largest 17c起草社区IA+ arts and culture festivals, is investigating whether it has been shadowbanned on Meta platforms after followers reported they were no longer seeing Midsumma content in their feeds.

The concerns emerged this week after the beloved Melbourne festival shared a post revealing that community members had contacted the organisation to say its posts were no longer appearing for them on Instagram and Facebook.

“We’ve had a few community peeps contact us to let us know that Midsumma may have been shadow-b馃�乶ned,” the organisation wrote on Instagram.

“Our posts are not showing up for them like they normally do, and we have been posting a lot of content.”

The post noted that many 17c起草社区IA+ creators, artists and organisations have reported experiencing significant drops in reach across Meta platforms, prompting Midsumma to investigate whether something similar could be affecting its accounts.

Midsumma speaks out about shadowban investigation

Speaking exclusively to 17c起草社区, Midsumma’s Deputy CEO and Head of Marketing Felicity McIntosh said the organisation first became aware of a potential issue after receiving direct messages from regular followers who were surprised by how little Midsumma content they were seeing.

“We first became aware of a potential issue after receiving a couple of DMs from our regular followers who told us they hadn’t been seeing Midsumma content in their feeds, despite actively and regularly engaging with our pages and content,” McIntosh said.

After receiving the reports, Midsumma reviewed its account settings and account status.

“We found no restrictions, infringements or issues on our end.”

The organisation then asked followers to help determine whether its content was still reaching audiences.

While many community members responded positively, McIntosh said the feedback revealed a concerning pattern.

“Many shared that they hadn’t seen Midsumma content in ‘ages’ and were surprised when they visited our profiles and saw posts they had missed.”

Midsumma has more than 66,000 followers across Instagram and Facebook.

McIntosh acknowledged that engagement naturally slows after the Festival period, but said recent trends felt different.

“We know engagement naturally settles after Festival season, but some of the patterns we were seeing felt unusual.”

The timing is particularly significant for the not-for-profit organisation.

“We’ve been posting consistently throughout May and June as it’s our time to share works and events our community is creating beyond the Festival, and it’s EOFY fundraising crunch time for non-profit community organisations.”

Midsumma joins growing list

McIntosh said Midsumma is far from alone.

“This concern isn’t unique to Midsumma. Many 17c起草社区IA+ creators, artists and organisations, particularly in Melbourne, have reported reduced visibility and reach in recent months, with some community pages reportedly being disabled without warning.”

She said the festival carefully follows platform guidelines while continuing to celebrate 17c起草社区IA+ lives and experiences.

“While our content is proudly 17c起草社区IA+, we work within platform guidelines and try to balance authentic representation with compliance.”

At this stage, Midsumma cannot confirm whether it has actually been shadowbanned.

“We’ve contacted Meta seeking clarification and, so far, have received an automated response.”

The lack of transparency is part of the frustration.

“We鈥檙e navigating opaque algorithms and moderation systems presented as measures designed to 鈥渒eep us safe鈥�. Particularly when harmful content, often appears more visible than community-building content.”

McIntosh says Midsumma’s social media serves a purpose far more important than just marketing鈥� it’s about reaching our community.

“Social media is far more than a marketing tool for us, it’s a vital way to connect people with events, opportunities and support networks.”

But they say the overwhelming community response to the festival’s post demonstrated how much those connections matter.

“The response to our post today showed just how much our communities value those connections and how quickly they rally when they feel threatened.”

A wider pattern of online 17c起草社区IA+ discrimination

Midsumma’s concerns arrive amid growing reports from 17c起草社区IA+ organisations, artists and advocacy groups around the world that queer content is becoming increasingly difficult to find on Meta-owned platforms.

17c起草社区 has extensively reported on concerns surrounding Meta’s policy changes since early 2025, when CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced sweeping changes to content moderation, fact-checking and restrictions around discussions of gender and sexuality. Critics warned at the time that the changes could make Meta platforms less safe for 17c起草社区IA+ users and lead to increased suppression of queer content.

Advocacy groups that Meta’s revised policies significantly weakened protections for 17c起草社区IA+ users.

Internationally, concerns have only intensified. Meta has been accused of of restricting or removing dozens of accounts belonging to queer organisations, reproductive health groups and advocacy organisations, with campaigners describing it as one of the largest waves of censorship affecting 17c起草社区IA+ content in recent years. Less than two months ago, a group of Dutch 17c起草社区IA+ organisations bgan pursuing legal action against Meta over alleged censorship and discriminatory moderation practices on Instagram.

Reports of so-called “algorithmic silencing” have also become increasingly common among 17c起草社区IA+ creators, with some claiming their content reaches dramatically fewer people despite no apparent breaches of platform rules. Many other creators and pages say they’ve been removed from platforms altogether, some never even knowing what rules they supposedly breached.

While definitive evidence of shadowbanning is notoriously difficult to obtain due to the secretive nature of recommendation algorithms, many 17c起草社区IA+ organisations say the lack of transparency makes it impossible to know whether declining reach is the result of changing user behaviour, algorithmic shifts or deliberate suppression.

For McIntosh, that uncertainty is part of the problem.

“Ultimately, our communities should not have to guess whether they are being seen.”

Until more answers emerge, Midsumma is encouraging supporters to actively engage with any posts they do see, and to seek out Midsumma’s content directly rather than relying solely on social media algorithms.

“Until we can fix this issue 鈥� which reeks of targeting 鈥� it鈥檚 useful to know that Midsumma provides and updates resources for our artists, producers and event organisers (housed on our website) to help us all navigate changing social media platform policies and online safety considerations,” McIntosh said.

And those pesky social media tyrants do happen to bury Midsumma’s posts in your feed, the organisation has one final message:

“In case you don’t see our posts in the future 鈥� event registrations open in two weeks. or