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An anonymously run Instagram page that highlights the plight of Black employees at Nike, has suddenly been deleted.
The accounts handle was @BlackatNike and highlighted current and former experiences of employees who worked for the apparel giant. The first post from this page came on June 24, and since then it had amassed over 7,500 new followers.
When reports of the page initially surfaced, a representative of the page reached out to Business Insider via email. They stated that the account was created to give the Black employees at Nike a platform and place to share some of the racist experiences they had at Nike. The representative of the page also described themselves as a “custodian to the people.” They continued to explain that it is not just one face behind this page rather a group of people.
According to Business Insider, the email that was used by the rep to establish contact was no longer functioning when another attempt was made to reach out in reference to the deletion of the page.
A similar page highlighting the plight of the LGBTQIA+ community also existed at one point, that page is now gone as well. It is not known if the same people who operated the Black at Nike page, also operated the LGBT at Nike page.
Nike has denied any involvement in the deletion of the page saying, “We have no knowledge of who owns the accounts or why they were taken down.”
Instagram also commented and confirmed they were not involved in the deletion of the page.
“There are a number of reasons why an account may no longer be accessible from its prior URL, for example, if the account holder deleted the account, deactivated the account, or changed the account username,” the spokesperson said.
Before the account mysteriously disappeared, there were over 70 posts. There could be legal recourse, but for that to happen they would have to find out who was behind the page first which is unlikely to happen at this point.