Penthouse Night Club's Instagram banned after Trump Lake sign joke removed in minutes

The Penthouse Night Club in Vancouver has lost its Instagram accounts after posting a marquee sign that poked fun at Donald Trump's aspirations to rename Lake Ontario to Lake America and a recent Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool debacle.

Benjamin Jackson, who creates the Penthouse's marquee signs, posted the sign to Instagram Thursday. The account was removed within three minutes. Instagram deleted both Jackson's personal account and the Penthouse's business account.

"I posted it, three minutes and it was gone. They took my personal account, the penthouse account," Jackson said. "It's hard not to get frustrated. Running an Instagram account for a strip club is difficult enough, there's so many things you can get in trouble for, and I just don't think a joke should be one of those things."

Danny Filippone, owner of the Penthouse, said: "This is funny, its cute, no names mentioned, so we were absolutely shocked when we found out it gotten taken down by Instagram."

The removal follows an earlier X (formerly Twitter) account suspension after the Penthouse posted its marquee sign reading "Always neighbours, never neighbors" when Trump's 51st state rhetoric began. The club has appealed the Instagram ban.

Fillippone said the Penthouse has received overwhelming community support. "We can't go anywhere in Vancouver without people saying 'Way to go! Or elbows up!'" he said. "People are now looking at us for a voice of not just Vancouver, but more of the country."

On the broader issue of social media moderation, Filippone said: "The most common phrase I've been getting from people is 'what happened to free speech?' They're 100 per cent correct. It's like you can't say anything now without it being either deleted or checked off a list. We're in a different time right now. The tension between the U.S. and Canada has never in my lifetime been higher."

Meta has not yet responded to a request for comment on the removal.