The Hunter's only dedicated queer venue has had its social media accounts banned without notice, cutting the King Street bar off from the community it serves.
Bernie's Bar has joined a list of LGBTQIA+ venues across the country who have had their social accounts suspended, banned or deactivated by social media giant Meta in recent weeks.
"Meta has banned our main Instagram account and our personal accounts, all at once," Bernie's co-founder Grace Frey said.
"They have also then blocked our backup account.
"We are not the only queer venue that this has hit recently, and we don't think that is a coincidence."
Ms Frey says she has been working through an appeals process, but has had no success in regaining access to the venue's account.
When she appealed, the response accused the pages of hosting child sexual exploitation material.
"I'm looking at it going, this is absolutely nuts," she said.
The Bernie's Bar business account, however, has not returned at all and still carries the exploitation-related suspension notice.
A restored personal account has also been barred from running any paid advertising or promotion, core to Ms Frey's job in marketing the venue.
"It has been just a very opaque process," she said.
Bernie's had approached the federal Member for Newcastle, Sharon Claydon, the Minister for Communications and the Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman, all of whom were responsive, Ms Frey said. However, the issue with Bernie's Bar's page itself had not been fixed.
Bernie's Bar opened in 2023 in the former Star Hotel site in Newcastle West, filling a five-year gap since Newcastle last had a dedicated queer venue.
Ms Frey believes it may be the only LGBTQIA+ nightlife venue of its kind in NSW outside of Sydney, and says the bar's social pages are far more than marketing.
"Queer bars don't just occupy a place in hospitality. They do operate as a community centre in a lot of ways," she said, pointing to messages from people questioning their sexuality later in life, and a recent approach from an aged-care facility seeking help booking entertainment for a Pride event.
She fears that the loss of that digital 'front door' will affect LGBTQIA+ people in regional areas the worst.
"They just don't have that point of contact any more. There's no visible space for them online, or digitally," she said.
Earlier this month, Qnews reported that Sydney and Melbourne queer, gay and inclusive venues The Laird, The 86, Palms on Oxford, UBQ and Tribe @ 231 all had their Instagram and/or Facebook accounts suspended by Meta recently.
The venues said that Meta's reasoning for the moderation of their pages included claims of content breaching, human trafficking, drug and gun promotion, and child exploitation community standards.
Dutch digital rights groups have reportedly launched legal action against Meta over a comparable wave of account removals in Europe.
Ms Frey said that the venue had not ruled out that they, and other queer venues and organisations, were being targeted by individuals or coordinated groups.
Ms Frey said Bernie's Bar had also had advertising restrictions put on its account when it launched, after being flagged as "political content", a designation she believed reflected a pattern, rather than a one-off error.
She noted recent changes to Meta's terms of service affecting language and ad-targeting categories tied to LGBTQIA+ communities, and said the disruption felt tied to broader "culture war" pressures flowing from the US and into how the platform was managed elsewhere.
"It's bots fighting bots. There's no humans involved in this whatsoever," she said.
"It just means that services are getting worse and worse because there is no decision-making that's actually happening."
With the Bernie's Bar page still down, staff have been directing patrons to the venue's website and building a mailing list as a fallback, while hoping the community will keep showing up in person regardless of what happens online.
Newcastle MP Sharon Claydon said the venue's online access issues were troubling.
"I am deeply concerned by Meta's decision to suspend Bernie's Bar's social media accounts and the negative impact this is having on one of Newcastle's most important LGBTQIA+ community spaces," she said.
"Bernie's is far more than a venue. It is a safe, welcoming place where people can connect, find support and be themselves.
"Losing access to its social media accounts not only affects the business, but also its ability to communicate with and support the community it serves.
Ms Claydon said reports that LGBTQIA+ venues across Australia may be experiencing similar issues were deeply troubling.
"It raise serious questions about whether there is a heavily coordinated, automated reporting campaign being conducted by bad actors," she said.
"My office has been in regular contact with the team at Bernie's and we are continuing to advocate directly with Meta, urging the company to restore the venue's accounts as a matter of urgency."
She said big-tech companies had a responsibility to ensure their moderation systems were fair, transparent and responsive.
"The government has made it clear that social media companies must do better," she said.
"We are taking action to hold digital platforms to account through stronger online safety laws and reforms that place greater responsibility on big-tech companies to protect Australians, rather than leaving communities to deal with the consequences of their harmful or flawed systems.
"Every Australian deserves to feel safe online, and community organisations should not be left without any meaningful avenues for review when platform decisions have such significant real-world consequences."
Meta has been contacted for comment.
