When you follow a creator for years, you’re invested in their lives or the little things they do. What happens when you wake up one day to find out the creator is suspended on social media? Social media or publishing platforms suspend or ban creators for various reasons that include harassment, abuse, copyright infringement, etc., but I’m not talking about such activities — these, of course, have consequences. I’m talking about creators who build an online community and camaraderie but lose their accounts due to reasons that may seem minor to you and me. Plus, when a nano or micro creator’s accounts are suspended, it takes weeks to months to simply figure out the reason.

For many creators, their livelihood depends on their social media accounts or platforms — so unless they’ve done something incriminating, banning them seems like an unfair punishment. For instance, content creator Vividh The Kurta Guy woke up one morning to find his Instagram account suspended. He waited about two months to get his account back, but it never happened. He had about 121K followers, and now, he started all over again on Instagram

And why was his account suspended? Because he used a toy gun in a video, which he has in his previous videos too.

Watch his video to know more. 👇

When asked Vividh about his experience, he said, “See, I made a short fictional video that featured a toy gun. Instagram should’ve reached out for its removal or blocked that particular video only. My agency, Pocket Aces, and Instagram India tried communicating with Instagram HQ to sort it out, but not much happened. And I figured it’s best to start over because even if I get my old account back, it would have a dead reach. That said, I have a loving community of followers who follow my new account, and I want to focus on creating content. Of course, I wish the guidelines and rules were clearer or impartial.”

If you think about it, several Instagrammers post pictures of real guns, and those accounts are still live — this almost makes you wonder if Instagram is partial towards creators from other parts of the world. Or do you think in the sea of content, some get lost?

What Happens When Creators Lose Their Accounts?

Independent and nano creators will surely bear the brunt as account suspensions will eat into their income and following. Remember that time when YouTube announced it would delete accounts that aren’t monetising? While YouTube released a statement on it, a lot was unclear, and in a Mashable feature, it was said, “A generous read of these terms can be seen as YouTube giving itself the ability to remove users and channels that disseminate hate speech or other violent rhetoric. For example, an account that starts creating white supremacist content can certainly be deemed as "no longer commercially viable. However, the wording should more explicit in defining what the update means. It should be also noted that the terms specifically state the company can terminate a user’s Google account as well. As written, a YouTuber can lose their Gmail, Google Photos, Documents, and more just for “no longer being commercially viable” on the video platform.”

The repercussions aren’t entirely clear, but we can establish it’s not a great place to be. Have a conversation with any creators operating on social media, and they’d have a tale or two about suspensions and temporary bans. In several cases, it’s independent or micro creators who face difficulty coming back. They’ve got no representation or information on who to contact for a resolution because content violation rules vary.

Earlier last week, a couple of TikTok users also took to Twitter to share how their accounts have been banned. Some of the users don’t even post — they only browse. So it’s strange, but let’s not forget that TikTok has previously bannedcreators for writing ‘Black Lives Matter’ in their bios. Later, TikTok released a statement saying it was a technical glitch.

Read: Inside the violent, misogynistic world of TikTok’s new star, Andrew Tate

But the Thing Is…

Millions of creators are platform-dependant. While it’s easier for creators with a significant following and revenue to go platform-independent and build their businesses or diversify revenue streams, it still affects them. Not just monetarily but also mentally and creatively. Imagine losing access to something you produce with passion!

What Can Creators Do When Their Accounts Get Suspended?

For starters, read the community and content guidelines to understand what a platform counts as violation. If you haven’t violated the guidelines or received any email from the platform to remove any content piece, you should submit a request. In many cases, a platform contacts the creator before disabling or suspending an account, so check your email. Alternately, you can also try reaching a platform through their social media, but if we’re being honest — many unfortunately do and don’t always receive a response.

What are your thoughts on it? Tell us because we genuinely want to know.