The War on Dark Art | Why It’s More Than Shadowbanning

This...war against dark artistry has become the bane of my fucking existence. Truly, with the sexual objectification of women, minors, and plain smut--why is Instagram and Facebook pledging full devotion towards trying to exterminate us?

Well, I've discovered some things along the way as of late, and frankly, it's all starting to make sense. I was shadowbanned a couple month back for a slew of fuckery. Mind you, I had zero posts removed, nor did violate any community standards. I was simply put in the shithouse for no reason at all. Why? Because I pissed off the algorithm. The Instagram algorithm is simply an illogical machine that freaks out when you perform too many tasks as once such as, but not privy to: liking, commenting, messaging, following/unfollowing in an allotted amount of time. Now, personally, I don't have that much time to be spending on answering all my messages or liking every photo on my feed, BUT...and I'm pretty sure this is what did it--I had too many comments popping up on one post. Yes. I was shitcanned for being TOO good. (No sense of narcissism there.)

So, what did I discover post-shadowban?

Well, shit didn't change, and it turns out, hashtags are not as important as I thought they were. It turns out, that the Instagram war against dark artistry runs much deeper than that. They aren't simply shadowbanning us anymore--they're blocking us out completely.

What does this mean?

Instagram's algorithm is designed to show you what like and dislike in a sequential order. Meaning, if you like guinea pig posts, you're going to see a slew of cavies. If you ignore pictures of onions, you're barely going to see onions. It's a pretty simple idea if you're looking at from a black and white perspective, but between being shadowbanned and surveying the facts--the algorithm is just eliminating anything that's not programmed to be aesthetically-pleasing to the human eye.

And, my friends, as George Carlin once stated, "It's a big club, and you ain't in it."

We aren't. It turns out that no matter how much I hashtag, retag, and change things up after months of brainstorming, barely, if any of my posts are being found in hashtags. It turns out that shadowbanning--even though real--doesn't really make a difference. Instagram is interested in one thing, and that one thing is money. What can "content creators" (gag) do to make us money? This is where the world of intermediate dancing, lip-syncing, guitar playing (sorry my guitar players!), modeling, and truthfully--bordering child porn--are what's being pushed onto the explorer page and pimped. Which, the world of the artist is slowly diminishing, and no matter how hard we try...we are being silenced. Yes, posting reels does sadly have a little more leverage than a post these days since Insta has become TikTok 2.0, but if you're like me and post gore reels...well, you're SOL. It sucks, it's unfair, and it's a direct violation of our American rights to express ourselves (in my opinion.)

But how do we get around it?

Well, that's something that I just cannot figure out. Unfortunately, I don't think there's much that can be done, but doing things like "saving" the post DOES make a difference. Saving posts increases the engagement and tells the algorithm "this is important." Stupid, right? It goes without saying that sharing, commenting, and liking your fellow artist's work will always give them beneficial results. I will also note that YOU SHOULD 100% AVOID USING THE HASHTAG HORROR. Trust me on this, and I think that's another reason why I was shadowbanned before. If you look up the word "horror" you'll receive a warning and will be asked to proceed if you wish. Bullshit.

Please don't think that what I'm saying is doom and gloom, but it's the hard facts. If you're a woman like me, it seems like the only solution is to go back to modeling metal shirts and posing in scantily-clad wardrobe, but...fuck that. I think if you're passionate about what you do, you have to understand that something that's worth having never comes easy, and when you're surrounded by the age of sex--it makes things increasingly hard to stand off if you're not nude. Please note: I have absolutely nothing against sex workers, but I don't think that my choice as a female should be get naked or not. Both genders possess way more than just our flesh, and as artists, I think it's completely unfair that we have become relegated to such an obtuse concept.

So, my friends, all I can say is that you have to keep sharing, saving, and spreading the word about your artists. It's hard--it's really fucking hard, but I believe that small changes CAN make a difference. Please don't give up.