Zuckerberg’s Meta Takes Down No Kings Instagram During Massive Protest Day
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Get MeidasTouch in your Google feedKey PointsMeta suspended the No Kings coalition’s Instagram account for approximately 90 minutes during nationwide protests.Although Meta restored the account, organizers said administrators remained locked out and unable to post.The coalition demanded answers, raising concerns about technology platforms’ influence over political organizing and speech.
Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta pulled the plug on the No Kings movement’s Instagram account Saturday, right in the middle of a massive nationwide day of protests and early-voting mobilization, leaving organizers scrambling to reach supporters at one of the most critical moments of their campaign. And even after the social media giant restored the account, there was a catch: The people running it still couldn’t get in. Ezra Levin, co-founder and co-executive director of Indivisible, one of the leading organizations behind the No Kings movement, says Meta suspended the coalition’s Instagram account for approximately 90 minutes during the peak of Saturday’s demonstrations, when organizers were using the platform to coordinate events, amplify turnout, and encourage Americans to vote early ahead of the midterm elections. The timing immediately raised alarms among organizers, who questioned why one of the country’s largest protest movements had suddenly lost access to a major communications platform in the middle of its national day of action. In an exclusive interview with MeidasTouch, Levin described the situation as alarming and unresolved. “Ben, this is a really alarming situation, and it’s not resolved yet. It’s still developing,” Levin told MeidasTouch’s Ben Meiselas. Levin said he had just attended his third No Kings protest of the day when he received word that Meta had suspended the coalition’s account. “It was joyful. It was powerful. There were people singing songs and waving banners, alerting the community that it’s time to get out and vote,” he said. Then came the news from his team. “They suspended it. We didn’t have access to it. We couldn’t post to it. Nobody could go to the page,” Levin explained.
The disruption occurred as thousands of events were taking place around the world. Levin described the weekend as the largest early-vote mobilization effort in American history, with more than 3,000 events planned. The Instagram account itself prominently featured a “VOTE EARLY” graphic, underscoring the coalition’s push to turn protest participation into electoral action. But for roughly an hour and a half, organizers say they were unable to use the account to reach their audience. And the problems didn’t end when the page reappeared. In an update posted Saturday afternoon, Levin confirmed that the account had been reactivated but that administrators remained locked out. “We STILL do not have admin access to the account,” Levin wrote on Bluesky. A more detailed statement from the No Kings team, timestamped 3:29 p.m. ET, revealed that Meta had acknowledged making a mistake. “We now know that Meta pulled down the account,” the coalition stated. According to the organizers, Meta failed to respond to their team for approximately 90 minutes while the account was offline during the peak of their national day of action and livestream. When Meta finally responded, the company reportedly acknowledged that it had made a “bad call.” But the coalition said its administrators still couldn’t log in using the email address originally associated with the account, effectively preventing them from publishing new content even though the page was publicly visible again. “This is not OK,” the coalition declared. The organization also raised a broader concern about the power technology companies wield over political organizing and public discourse. “This is part of a much bigger concern: activists and movements around the world are increasingly vulnerable to decisions made by powerful technology platforms that can determine who gets heard and who gets silenced,” the statement said. There is no evidence at the moment that the suspension was politically motivated, and Meta’s reported acknowledgment of an erroneous decision does not establish why the account was taken down. Still, Levin drew a pointed comparison to developments overseas. “Look, this is strikingly reminiscent of what we saw in Brazil,” he told Meiselas, referring to a recent court ruling involving Meta and allegations that the company favored authoritarian political interests. “We might be seeing something similar from Meta in our country right now,” Levin warned. The remarks reflect growing concerns among pro-democracy activists about the influence of powerful technology executives and their platforms over political speech, particularly during major moments of civic mobilization. Norm Eisen, the attorney and prominent democracy advocate, also sounded the alarm Saturday. “BREAKING: Meta pulled down the main No Kings Instagram accounts,” Eisen wrote on Bluesky. “We demand answers for why this happened during our National Day of Action.” Eisen emphasized that the demonstrations were continuing regardless of the disruption. “Meanwhile, millions are mobilizing—they cannot silence us,” he wrote. The controversy comes as No Kings organizers are seeking to translate the energy of their demonstrations into early-voting participation ahead of November’s elections. That made Saturday’s interruption especially consequential for a coalition trying to reach participants in real time. For Levin, the message to supporters was unmistakable: Keep organizing, keep sharing information, and don’t allow the disruption to derail the movement. “We’re not gonna stop organizing against this regime,” he told Meiselas. “We’re not gonna stop organizing against this regime’s collaborators on the outside.” He urged Americans to amplify information about ongoing protests and the account suspension, warning that the coalition was being deprived of a crucial communications channel. “We’re gonna win. We’re gonna organize. And we’re not gonna allow the fascists just to roll over us.” As of the coalition’s latest statement provided to MeidasTouch, the Instagram account was publicly accessible, but its administrators had not regained control. Meta’s full explanation for the suspension remains unclear. For now, the No Kings movement is demanding answers from one of the world’s most powerful technology companies about why its account disappeared at precisely the moment organizers were trying to mobilize Americans to take action at the ballot box. About the author