Amid Repro Uncensored and Dutch Queer Groups’ Landmark Legal Action Against Meta, Australian Organisations Warn Similar Cases Could Build Toward Future Legal Action -Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Brussels / Melbourne – May 2026

As Repro Uncensored and the coalition of Dutch queer organizations pursue landmark legal action against Meta over the mass removal of queer Instagram accounts in the Netherlands, Digital Rights Watch and Repro Uncensored are warning that similar legal and regulatory challenges could emerge in Australia, where the organizations estimate that dozens of accounts have been wrongly removed or restricted.

These removals appear to disproportionately impact queer communities, artists, activists, women’s health organizations, sexual health educators, and cultural groups, raising growing concerns around over-enforcement, opaque moderation systems, and automated censorship.

Meta’s removal process is opaque, leaving LGBTQ+ creators to guess what will get them censored.

Basjia is an award-winning queer artist of colour, recognised for creating spaces for LGBTQ+ communities. Since December, her Instagram accounts have been removed six times. Last week, her last remaining account was suspended after she promoted a dance workshop, leaving her cut off from Instagram, YouTube and Facebook. As with other account removals, she says she received no warning.

Basjia now uses three different phones to keep her accounts entirely separate and, like others, has paid for verification in the hopes of accessing better support. She is afraid to discuss money in private messages because other accounts have reportedly been removed after doing so, making basic business communication difficult. She is also afraid to appeal the suspension, as the last time she pressed the appeal button, her account was permanently deleted within minutes.

Basjia says this kind of censorship threatens her survival. She is isolated and afraid to post about queer events. She can’t contact her dance students and her email can’t be found online. She goes to bed scared that she will wake up to her life’s work erased.

The unexplained removal of LGBTQ+ accounts pushes queer people to unsafe alternatives. Scammers can retrieve accounts at a premium of up to $3000 USD per account. But once the account is reinstated, the scammers can then extort the account for more money, threatening removal.

QNews journalists Laura Koefoed and Dean Arcuri have reported the exhaustion felt across the community, as well as the devastating impact on artists and educators who have lost access to years of work, audience-building and community connection.

The Dutch legal action, brought by Dutch queer organizations including Repro Uncensored, Club Church, The Queer Agenda, BUTT Magazine, COC Netherlands, Tillatec, Sauna Nieuwezijds, Free Willie Amsterdam, Striptopia, and No Limits! Art Castle, and led by Dutch law firm Bureau Brandeis, argues that Meta’s actions may violate European fundamental rights law, the EU Digital Services Act (DSA), GDPR protections, and Dutch anti-discrimination law.

Quotes attributable to Repro Uncensored:

“We aim for our legal action in the Netherlands to set a global precedent around Big Tech accountability and fundamental rights in the digital public sphere as these patterns rapidly escalate globally, especially in Australia where we estimate dozens of accounts may already have been wrongly censored,” said Martha Dimitratou.

“When platforms can make organisations, knowledge, and entire communities disappear without explanation or meaningful redress, it leads to digital ostracization that undermines civic participation and erodes democracy”.

“What is at stake are the rights of traditionally vulnerable communities globally who rely on these platforms to access information, build civic spaces, and participate in public discourse. This legal action is about establishing accountability and protecting fundamental rights in the digital public sphere. If left unaddressed, these patterns risk strengthening anti-gender and anti-rights movements while further threatening fundamental rights for all.”

Quotes attributable to Digital Rights Watch:

“Digital Rights Watch is aware of several Australian LGBTQ+ and sexual and reproductive health accounts that have been suspended, removed or restricted. These accounts provide community, education and support. When they disappear from major platforms, the loss is felt far beyond the account holder.”

“This is not just a content moderation issue. It is about who gets to participate online, whose voices are treated as legitimate, and whether platforms are applying their rules in ways that disproportionately silence marginalised communities.”

“Platforms like Meta have enormous power over public conversation. With that power comes responsibility: moderation decisions must be transparent, consistent, appealable and free from discriminatory outcomes.”

“Automated moderation systems can reproduce bias at scale. If Meta is relying on automated tools to detect exploitative content, it must be able to show those tools are not unfairly targeting LGBTQ+, kink, sex education or reproductive health content.”

The organizations state they will continue documenting cases, supporting affected communities, and advocating for stronger transparency, accountability, and human rights protections across digital platforms.

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Media Contact:
Martha Dimitratou, martha@reprouncensored.org
Lucinda Thorpe, lucinda@digitalrightswatch.org.au

About Repro Uncensored
Repro Uncensored is a global nonprofit documenting digital suppression and supporting organizations affected by discriminatory moderation systems. Through multilingual incident tracking, its global censorship map, research, and cultural advocacy, Repro Uncensored works with sexual and reproductive health organizations, queer collectives, and cultural communities to ensure their content remains accessible. The organization also supports account reinstatements and leads work on emerging forms of technology-enabled harm, including AI-driven abuse.

About Digital Rights Watch
Digital Rights Watch is a charity founded in 2016 to promote and defend human rights as realised in the digital age. We stand for privacy, democracy, fairness, and freedom. Digital Rights Watch educates, campaigns, and advocates for a digital environment in which rights are respected, and connection and creativity can flourish.