Hello everyone!

As many of you know my organization Venus Social Club lost a vital part of our business, our instagram account. We unfortunately were effected by instagrams new AI feature that bans accounts without an actual person reviewing it. We had no content on our page that violated their rules and guidelines, and never received a warning that our content did. After appealing this, it was denied and we lost our account permanently.

Our account recently started gaining lots of momentum and this is a major set back to what we are trying to create here in milwaukee. (a sapphic event venue and bar space) Having a large audience and support system means the world to me, and knowing that some people cannot find our account anymore is very upsetting.

After looking into ways to fix this, the only solution that seems to work for other people that have been effected, is taking legal action. Unfortunately, we are a very small business and cannot afford legal fees right now. So I have decided to reach out to our community and ask for your help. I am going to try my best to get our original account back by filing in small claims court against meta.

Some may think, it’s just an instagram account, but to my business it means much more than that. It was a way to connect with other sapphic organizations around the country, it’s where all of our story memories were, and where queer and trans people in milwaukee could find somewhere that they feel accepted. We also had photos and events posted back to our first event last november of 2024. That account is where I handled a lot of my business conversations and I have lost all of that. I lost our public update channel, and the motivation to post since I am afraid of being banned again. I have no idea how this will affect my business long term. we could lose profit from getting less views on flyers, and this is my primary source of income right now after getting let go from my job 2 months ago without warning. While this also affects me and my business, it affects DJ’s, photographers, and everyone else who helps me out with my business, who needs to get their name out there and to be able to put the work they do with Venus on their resumes. Any extra funds donated will be put towards our amazing team, and for funding for future events!

Thank you for reading and thank you to our dedicated supporters, we wouldn’t be where we are without you!!! Thank you to my amazing team <3

Mya (Venus Social Club Founder)