Digital Sharecropper
A few days ago, I lost my Instagram account. 13K followers. 2M+ views. Years of content, conversations, collaborations… gone. But honestly, losing the numbers wasn’t the hardest part. I lost connections. I lost my creator network. I lost the accounts that inspired me, supported me, and grew with me. And while dealing with this entire situation, one thought stayed in my mind: We are digital sharecroppers. Just like traditional sharecroppers worked on land they didn’t own, creators today are building businesses, identities, and communities on platforms they don’t control. We create the content. We bring the audience. We spend years understanding algorithms, trends, engagement, storytelling, editing, branding… But the land still belongs to someone else. One policy change. One security issue. One automated flag. One unexpected suspension. And suddenly, years of digital hard work can disappear overnight. Recently, many creators and Instagrammers — even high-profile accounts — have faced sim...