From the Secretariat of the Finno-Ugric Capitals of Culture:
On March 20, 2026, we learned that the Facebook page of Finno-Ugric Capitals of Culture programme had strangely disappeared.
Over the past decade, this page, with over 1500 followers, has been the primary communication channel of this programme. This is where we post news about events in current Finno-Ugric Capitals of Culture, updates about competitions for future title-holders and various news from the Finno-Ugric world.
Hence, it was a shock to us that the page had simply disappeared, especially in light of the ongoing competition for the title of Finno-Ugric Capital of Culture 2027. We immediately reached out to Facebook/Meta via its Problem Reporting feature to find out what happened, asking to restore the page. After not getting any response from Meta, we reached out again and again, altogether five times now. Also our partners and friends from Estonia, Finland and the USA have independently written to Meta for explanations. Still no response.
To be very clear: this is not normal. A Facebook page cannot and should not be closed down just like this, and without any explanations before or after. This is also disrupting day-to-day operations of this civil society programme meant to promote Finno-Ugric peoples, languages and cultures.
We therefore kindly ask for help from among our partners and friends with prior experience in dealing with Meta on how to resolve this situation with a view to restoring the page of our programme.
In the meantime, updates and news about Finno-Ugric Capitals of Culture programme will be published on the website of the programme (https://capitals.uralic.org), and shared on Facebook pages of URALIC Centre and Sukukansojen Ystävät ry, the two main organisations behind the programme. See you there!
