Tech giants remove posts and threaten to close online groups
Saturday 29th August 2026 on 15:30 in
Denmark
American tech companies are removing posts and threatening to close volunteer-run online communities, DR reports, as 200 volunteers meet in Odense on Saturday to discuss the problems they face.
People come together in large numbers in digital communities focused on running, breastfeeding, sleep and travel. These groups are often run by volunteers who spend considerable time updating pages and posting photos, including on Facebook.
A new report from the TrygFonden foundation and the cooperative Os and Data found that 76 percent of Danes belong to a digital community.
Meta platforms are where most Danes are active, with Facebook at the top of the list. A total of 78 percent of Danes have a Facebook profile. The figure is 89 percent among 15 to 20 year olds and 82 percent among 21 to 30 year olds. Just over half of people aged 71 and older belong to digital communities.
Anette Weber, who founded the Solsikkenetværket online community in Faaborg-Midtfyn, said Meta had threatened to close the group because of the way it advertised.
“We have received emails from Meta threatening closure because of the way we advertise,” she said.
Weber said she did not understand the messages because the group’s posts were standard image posts that simply provided information about an event.
Tali Mørch, a spokesperson for Os and Data, said some of Meta’s rules created problems for online communities. She pointed to breastfeeding groups, where images could be removed if they showed a woman’s nipple, potentially putting the entire community at risk of closure.
Online communities are important to many of their members, Mørch said. Weber said her group was establishing a club for school refusal and depended on the platform to promote the club and its events.
Some people even describe their online communities as vital, Mørch said, meaning that a sudden closure could have a significant impact.
DR News contacted Meta for comment on the criticism but had not received a response from the company.