Why I Left Instagram

I started using Instagram to publish my works way back in 2017. Mostly because friends and other artists that I admire had accounts there. I focused quit a bit of my time on that platform, and at some point it was the only place I posted art. Even before I had this Blog.

Despite my best efforts and gimmicks I noticed that my “growth” on Insta was very slow... Seriously! Over time I received far much love from Reddit, Twitter and 4chan. Than that place.

I have never had a single work being commissioned from Instagram!

I just thought that Instagram was a bad platform for getting commissions and proceeded to only use it as a portfolio.

Then, to my surprise, a friend of mine who started using Instagram because of me was getting commissions regularly. When I wasn’t even getting new followers…

No. This is not the art that got removed.
I'm not making the same mistake twice!

Was I jealous? No! I was curious…

But then I remembered the Topless Elf!

This was a watercolour sketch that disappeared from my Instagram. And when I say “disappeared” I really mean it! It wasn’t deleted or removed by Instagram with a warning. It just vanished...

The sketch wasn’t adult or mature in nature. It was an artistic nude. Which was permitted by Instagram terms of service. Nudes of scientific, educational or artistic paintings were allowed...

For a moment I thought I hadn’t posted that, but Instagram had a option to automatically post to Tumblr. And ironically enough there she was: My female presenting nipple in plain sight on Tumblr of all places.

I didn’t pay any mind to it for a while… Until I found out about Shadow Banning.

I can’t explain Shadow Banning in depth, but apparently companies can make you invisible if they don’t like you. That is the short version of it.

Was I Shadow Banned? Who knows!
Should I insist on Instagram? Hell no! It was never good to me and it is owned by Facebook Meta.

And to be honest I was never good or keen on social medias. So my new philosophy is to focus on the things that I love and that I am good at.

That is why I’m nuking some of my social media pages. Twitter 𝕏 might be next.

 I'm sorry but I don't think I can post the art I talked about in this Blog. I just re-read the guidelines and I'm not risking. The piece above is from a request I did last year. I think the male topless is ok!