Gossip/Pop culture publisher returns to Facebook after ban

Media reports reveal that gossip/pop culture publisher - with a huge following on Facebook, The Shade Room, is back on the social network, two days after the platform gave it the boot.

For now, at least.

The Shade Room’s original Facebook page, which had 4.4 million fans before the social network shut it down on Monday last week, is still deleted.

However, founder and CEO, Angelica Nwandu, put up a new page last week. The back-and-forth between both platforms is worth noting because The Shade Room is the best-known example of a publisher that has grown up almost entirely on social media platforms — first on Facebook’s Instagram, and now on Facebook and other social networks as well.

READ: 8 BEST Facebook hacks, tips you should know

It’s an appealing idea for many digital media publishers to grow or 'blow up' for free and in the manner which The Shade Room has done, but this week’s news highlights the risk of setting up shop on someone else’s turf.

“It is a wake-up call, and it makes us go even harder to find and get a grip on our audience,” says Nwandu. “At the end of the day, you don’t want to have a company that’s dependent on Facebook.”

Nigerian-born Nwandu has been given numerous awards and featured on a lot of widely-read publications since her brainchild - The Shade Room - took the Internet by storm.