Several Los Angeles nightclubs serving LGBTQ+ communities of color have regained their Facebook and Instagram pages after months of unexplained suspensions by Meta's AI moderation system.

Club Cobra in North Hollywood, Catch One in Mid-City and Club Chico in Montebello all lost access to their social media accounts between January and June, as first reported by the Los Angeles Times. The pages came back only after a state legislator intervened and the Times contacted Meta.

Catch One owner Mitch Edelson estimated ticket sales fell as much as 80% without Meta's ad platform. Club Cobra owner Marty Sokol said AI-driven search engines began listing his venues as permanently closed.

"For 15 years we developed hundreds of thousands of followers who we were able to build community with," Sokol told the Times. "Then without warning or cause, they ripped away our ability to communicate with our community."

Sokol said he never posted anything racier than PG-level party fliers. Meta's appeal process required uploading a passport, driver's license and facial recognition scans, he said. He received no meaningful response for months.

Assembly member Mark González, a Democrat representing District 54 in Los Angeles and a member of the Legislature's LGBTQ caucus, reached out to Meta on Catch One's behalf. Catch One's Facebook page was restored on Sept. 10. Club Cobra and Club Chico pages returned the following weekend.

Meta did not provide a statement or explain the suspensions to the Times.

The suspensions fit a broader pattern. Meta began rolling out new AI content-flagging tools in March while laying off thousands of employees, including human content moderators. Meta's own Oversight Board flagged problems in a June report, finding "systemic human rights concerns" and a "lack of transparency and consistency" in how the company deactivates accounts, TechCrunch reported. The board recommended Meta give users a dashboard to review past violations and appeal options.

More than 60,000 users have signed a petition asking Meta to explain its bans and allow human review of appeals, according to The Next Web.

Catch One, at 4067 W. Pico Blvd. in Arlington Heights, was designated a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument in November 2024 as part of the African American Historic Places L.A. Project, according to the Los Angeles Conservancy. The venue's founder, Jewel Thais-Williams, died in June 2025 at age 86.

González's office said it is trying to connect with Meta's support staff to restore remaining pages. No policy changes or legislative hearings have been announced.