Overjoyed - pub couple's delight at page's return

Pub owner Julie Loach described the situation as a "nightmare"

The owners of a pub who had their Facebook page deleted without warning said they were “overjoyed” at its surprise return.

Julie and Lee Loach, who run the Black Bull, in Donington, Lincolnshire, had built a following of more than 8,500 people on the pub's profile before it “vanished”.

Mrs Loach said she felt “very lucky” about the page’s return "this is a dream, I’ve been living nightmares”.

Meta, Facebook's parent company, confirmed the page had been restored.

The page, which is used for the majority of their food bookings, disappeared on 8 September, taking existing reservations with it.

Mrs Loach described the removal of the pub from Facebook as "a travesty" to the business.

But, Mrs Loach said she was "overjoyed" at the sudden return of the business's profile on Friday.

"I was literally shaking, I refreshed the page, I thought I was seeing things,

"I thought I was dreaming," she said.

Mrs Loach believed the reason for the sudden deletion of the page could lie with the pub's name

According to Mrs Loach, many similar named pubs around the country also had their profiles deleted from Facebook.

"We’ve done nothing wrong, it’s an AI sweep," she said.

"Hopefully all other pages will be restored as there's a lot of upset people," she added.

Mrs Loach said talking to BBC Radio Lincolnshire was "the catalyst" to the pub's Facebook presence being restored.

"Unless it was highlighted no one would know about it."

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