From 190,000 followers to 0 - What I learned from my deactivated Instagram account and what you can learn from my mistakes
Added 2019-04-13 12:19:46 +0000 UTC
Once upon a time, I was a popular webcomics creator on Instagram... Yep, once upon a time... sounds very much like the beginning of an old fairy tale, but it was actually not that long ago: It was only last year.
On 1st December 2018, my Instagram account was disabled for violation of their terms of service, and here's the infamous screenshot that announced the death sentence.
You must be thinking: Who the hell are you? Song INKOLLO? What kind of name is that? You see, I chose this weird pen name to build my brand, that's how my mind worked back in 2016. I was nobody, a simple guy who just got out of art school and fighting my way through an ocean of comic book artists to make a name for myself... wait... that's not right, making a name for myself was not the goal, make a living was the goal back then.
Long story short, I started posting on Instagram. And it was a huge success inside our niche community. I went from a few hundreds of followers to almost 200,000 followers within 2 years. All my growth were organic and each post could have 10K to 20K likes and hundreds... even thousands of real comments. I was ecstatic... I touched the insta-fame.
I also worked like a maniac. From 10 to 16 hours a day. Just so... my 200K followers could read me every single day.
Now I think back, I was kind of blinded by all the likes and comments I received, and didn't really pay attention to 2 major alarming signs:
- I started to receive more and more hateful comments. Sometimes, hundreds of hateful comments per day.
- More and more of my comics that used to be fine with Instagram (LEWD funny comics with self-censorship which shows no sensitive parts of the human body) got removed.
By the end of 2017, the blooming of my instagram account stopped. Suddenly. No more crazy reach. Only less than 10 percent of my followers actually saw my post.
I'm no fool. I know how to adjust, adapt and survive. So I did what I thought was necessary:
- I post no more funny LEWD comics, even it's just a joke, even it's self-censored. I only post my comics that are family friendly and all public.
- I started to tone down my voice. I no longer give my opinion on politic issues or popular subjects (like Trump, or #metoo, or celebrity scandals)
But nothing really worked out in the end. It just felt that, no matter what I did, it was not good enough for Instagram anymore. I was no longer in its favor. My reach went plumbing down. I was depressed.
It was also the moment that Facebook started to push Instagram to become a more business platform with ads. I knew it was not the ideal situation, but I listened to my reason instead of my heart, I made the deal with the Facebook Devil and started to pay for the ads to get more reaches.
I did everything I could to follow the community guidelines and kept on paying for ads on Instagram. After all, Instagram has been helping me to make a living as a struggling artist. Money talks aside, I feel grateful towards Instagram, it almost felt like a payback when I paid for ads. And I defended Instagram in front of so many of my artist friends who are skeptical about this Facebook's money-making puppet.
I really thought I could still survive on Instagram... the most popular social media platform... the one... the only... the only social media artists can't live without...
On 1st December 2018, one month before Christmas, I woke with a notification from Instagram - You account was deleted for violation of our terms of service, etc etc. Needless to say, my Christmas of 2018 s**ked, deep sh**. I was really depreseed, and I didn't know what I did wrong, why? Why me? Just why?
There are endless posts on Instagram that are more graphic or explicit or edgy than my comics, why I was censored so harshly on Instagram? Then I found out I was "word" censored.
- In one of my comics, I used the word "suck" and "cock" in one sentence.
- In one of my comics, one of my self-loathing gay friend got dumped by a grindr date and said to me that he no longer wanted to be a "faggot" cause it was "fucked up".
Even though the images were totally appropriate, I was detected and caught by Instagram's stupid Algorithm and my account was deleted.
I tried to contact Instagram. I send hundreds of emails. I got one reply weeks after, the IG staff wrote me that: my account was deleted because of Hate Speech and graphic language. Period.
So this is it. The story. My side of the story. You see, not a fairy tale. I guess the moral of the story is: Be careful of what you put in these dialogue bubbles, the Big Brother is watching.
Thank you.
Yours Truly
PS. 3 years of my hard work is now gone. I cried about it. But after the crying, I started a new instagram @inkauston. And you should do the same.
Update: On 11 April, 2019, Instagram announced that it will start demoting content that doesn’t violate its Community Guidelines, but might be ‘inappropriate.’ The announcement says that posts that are ‘sexually suggestive’, ‘hurtful’, or ‘violent’ can be removed from discovery sections and hashtag pages.
Lol we all know it's a pretty f***ing lie from the social media giant. The demoting or censoring (whatever it calls) started way before the annoucement. In my case, that happend to me two years ago.
Comments
It will probably be awhile before you read this, if you read it at all. But have to say I live your work. Can’t get enough of it. Am a loyal fan and patron no matter what you do. I may not appreciate every story you tell but love your art so much and want to support it no matter what. Hope on you keep on truckin. Don’t remember how I found you but sure glad I did. Love, Danny P.S. hope one day you return to continue your Totem War and Bigger is Better stories.
Danny Provencio
2019-04-23 17:33:24 +0000 UTCThanks for sharing your story. I’m really sorry that you had to experience all of that.
Kevin King
2019-04-14 11:10:58 +0000 UTCSee man? You got tons of support from all of us, and as you keep updating Patreon you don't have anything to worry about. I can relate to you as a fashion photographer, since Instagram changed its algorythms I don't have the same engagement as I used to have but it made me realize that fame was not what I was looking for, I was looking for making a decent living. I will keep suscribing and paying for your comics as long as my finances allow it, so cheer up... cuz you cheer us all up with your stories. 😊
Diego Fraustro
2019-04-14 08:18:08 +0000 UTCI found you via Patreon, and I have largely abandoned Instagram, Facebook, and tumblr. Most of my friends have done the same, they only keep accounts now so that they can message friends if need be, but they no longer use the services. It's not the business and ads that are the problem, its what the business does to the content to sanitize and monetize. Frankly, I'd rather pay for a service and get what ever "sanatized" or unsanitized level of content I'd chose, not have it done for me. So Patreon, and Twitter, and a few others.
Miguel Castaneda
2019-04-14 04:32:44 +0000 UTCI'm sorry that happened to you. I found you on Webtoons (when I first found it I think I read 200 chapters or so the first day) and was sad to see you removed from there but I'm so happy you still share your stories and art on here. Thank you for still being here and I look forward to support you through here as much as I can.
2019-04-13 21:17:53 +0000 UTCI'm sorry this happened and I really don't understand Instagram decisions about this, sex is natural, our body is natural and your art is funny, happy and also encouraging and reflects what is life for you so what is there to censor?? Instagram is administrated by hypocrites: they let bodyshaming, homophobic, transphobic, racist, etc. publications for all to see and then censor love, sex, woman nipples (this is so stupid I couldn't believe it), etc... They want to reflect a world but not the real world... I love your art and I'm grateful Patreon still is a home for you
Leonace
2019-04-13 20:31:06 +0000 UTCSorry to hear about your troubles with instagram but not unique as you know. You know you are not singled out. As they say big brother is watching. Hopefully we don’t turn into a spy world. That some want be free to explore what we want to see without others telling us no.
Danny Provencio
2019-04-13 19:13:39 +0000 UTCMy partner and I love your work amd found you on IG. My partner has been thrown into FB and IG jail at one time or another and finally decided to close both accounts and start over with only close friends and family. I can't imagine for artists like you who rely on it to spread the word about their art. 💜💜
Andy Q
2019-04-13 16:35:52 +0000 UTCThank you for the explanation Song. I am appalled by what happened to you on IG. Stay strong & never let them win
William Deutsch
2019-04-13 16:03:39 +0000 UTCOh my God this sucks on IG I just saw a porn star showing his butt on a post and you can't post the word faggot even tho you are gay this is so fucked up I'm so sorry dude keep going strong
jamie
2019-04-13 15:18:38 +0000 UTCThat’s incredibly painful. I remember when you first started as Xong, and doing your work on Inkollo. I hope to best support you in your journey, thanks so much for sharing.
Zhu
2019-04-13 15:11:00 +0000 UTCI'm glad I found you on Patreon. You are very creative and talented. Keep doing what you love and everyone will follow
Gilbert Quintero
2019-04-13 14:35:00 +0000 UTCI do not use Instagram and discovered you through Patreon. I hope you will continue to produce your wonderful comics on Patreon. I would miss your art and humor tremendously if you were to stop. :(
Wiliam Kibler
2019-04-13 14:17:42 +0000 UTCThis is outrageous. You have “influencers” promoting their Just4Fans porn pages and people posting more provocative pictures than you. Yet, they remain unscathed from the social media behemoth.
2019-04-13 13:52:52 +0000 UTCKeep being you no matter what. I’m no fan of social media. The older I get, the more I want to get out and be with real people and life. You are the only one I follow and subscribe to on Patreon.
Michael Lunter
2019-04-13 13:25:56 +0000 UTCI love your work and your stories. I'm glad you are still going. Keep up the amazing work!
2019-04-13 13:01:28 +0000 UTCThank you, Julian. I will try. I hesitated cause maintaining the app costs a lot of money each year and Apple and Google are not easy on the censoring either.
SONG Inkollo
2019-04-13 12:38:02 +0000 UTCMy partner and I are enormous fans of your work, Song. You're genuine and touch chords that are so truthful. I'm glad to be able to read your work here and hope that you keep posting for a very long time. :-)
2019-04-13 12:36:40 +0000 UTCThank you very much, Oliver. I really appreciate your support. Social media is very important for independant artists to spread our works, but it's also terrifying, cause I never know what policy these social media giants will push out tomorrow and that could totally destroy my following.
SONG Inkollo
2019-04-13 12:35:06 +0000 UTCIt was pretty stupid. Me, a proud gay man happily partnered being accused of hate speech againt gay men? It was a joke. But there's nothing I can do about it.
SONG Inkollo
2019-04-13 12:33:01 +0000 UTCI still love your work. Please used your app more I bet you could get more followers that way
Julian
2019-04-13 12:32:14 +0000 UTCI found you through Facebook. I only read your stuff via Patron. I am not a fan of Instagram. Keep up the work you do. I, for one, enjoy it. Thanks for what you do.
Oliver Emmitt Smith
2019-04-13 12:27:13 +0000 UTCSo stupid. I follow you on both but realized that I was unsubscribe on Instagram and that's really awful
Brian MacHarrie
2019-04-13 12:26:43 +0000 UTC
