Chinnapong – stock.adobe.com
Hello all! Sorry for the rare interruption in our Netflix coverage, but we had to get the word out about what’s happening with our Facebook page.
On June 30th, 2024, we received a notification that our page had been unpublished. Our understanding is that an automated process took down our page. A similar automated process ran through our page last year (on exactly June 30th), and our page was instantly reinstated upon appeal.
That hasn’t been the case this time around.
Our page has been pulled for impersonation, which makes sense, given that we’re a Netflix fan site. However, as our page points out in multiple locations and across our entire website, we have been a fansite established for over ten years. We don’t attempt to state otherwise. Unlike some of the other Netflix-oriented pages (many of whom actively spread disinformation), we also don’t use Netflix’s trademarked logo in ours.
Our Facebook page was set up in July 2023, meaning we have had two violations for over 11 years and have reached tens of millions of Facebook users in that period. We also have a sizeable follower count of over 200,000, and we have spent a significant sum on Facebook ads over the years.
We’ve attached a picture of our Facebook page today, with the “Unpublished” notification at the top. When we go through the “See Details” section, we eventually get to a screen that says, “Your Page Is In Review.”
How long this review will last or whether it’ll happen at all remains to be seen.
The What’s on Netflix Facebook Page
We’ve tried alternative methods of contacting Facebook or Meta employees or reps, but our efforts have been fruitless.
Facebook is essential to a website’s traffic mix in 2024, and ours is no different. Having this page offline is damaging to our business.
Facebook pages being removed aren’t new. We’ve found a slew of fan sites or fan pages like ours that have been unjustly removed. Other incidents of removals have been resolved, such as Thinking Humanity, with over 7 million followers, having their page temporarily removed in 2023. A Ghostbusters News page also had similar problems late last year, although they were able to resolve them.
Without digging into the weeds too much, this has been a challenging year for What’s on Netflix, and this Facebook page removal only compounds our issues.
As you may have heard, Google rolled out many changes in September 2023 that impacted small and medium-sized publishers (we place ourselves somewhere in the middle), and our site was significantly affected. In addition, we continue to have a strained relationship with the Netflix US PR team, compounded by Netflix’s internal emphasis on competing with us and all other entertainment news sites with Netflix TUDUM.
Given the multiple headwinds, the future of What’s on Netflix looks uncertain.
We have contacted Meta’s press office with our issue but haven’t heard back.
Don’t forget that we’re on a number of other social platforms that you can follow our stories on. See our About page for more.