Tribute act stars including Dolly Parton, Taylor Swift and Britney Spears have protested against having their social media accounts banned.

The entertainers all gathered outside Meta offices close to King’s Cross station earlier today (June 27) to hit out at Facebook and Instagram guidelines that ban accounts “pretending to be someone famous”.

In March, Meta updated its ‘community standards’ policy to try and combat the prevalence of fake accounts on its sites.

But tribute acts have said that this has cost them their access to thousands of followers and potential ticket sales after their accounts were banned.

Tribute acts outside Meta’s north London offices earlier today included Dolly Parton, Taylor Swift, Adele, Britney Spears, Freddie Mercury and George Michael.

Kelly O’Brien, a Dolly Parton tribute act who claims to be endorsed by the singer herself, was among those who came to protest the new guidelines.

Ham & High: Kelly O'Brien, a Dolly Parton tribute act, joined the protestKelly O'Brien, a Dolly Parton tribute act, joined the protest (Image: Hard Numbers)

Her act ‘The Dolly Show’ lost over 6,000 followers on Instagram and Facebook after her accounts were closed down with just 48 hours notice last year under an old version of Meta’s rules.

Kelly carefully tried to build back her following, regaining 4,500 supporters on Facebook, before access to her account was blocked again on March 18.

Kelly said: “To have your account shut down is devastating because you work so hard engaging with followers, people who are potentially buying your tickets. 

“It is a problem that Meta has created for artists around the world by introducing rules that they didn’t think through.

“Meta needs to change their policy to allow tributes, impersonators or impressionists to use the site without fear of being shut down – we spend lots of money on Facebook and it’s an important channel for fans to connect with us, buy tickets and honour the amazing stars to whom we pay tribute.”