The Influencer League and MSL, both communication companies, have tracked that Black influencers do not earn as much money as their white counterparts, Insider reports. A December study called “Time to Face the Influencer Pay Gap,” discovered that the pay discrepancy between both groups was about 35%. However, when whites were compared to other people of color outside of Blacks, the gap was slightly lower at 29%.
Instagram is looking to change that with a new feature. On Monday (March 7), the free photo and video sharing app announced its goal to ensure Black content creators are able to profit more abundantly, the Chicago Defender states. The app’s new feature will create select tags for creators, professional accounts and influencers to properly track trends generated from their platforms.
After Black social media users took notice of Instagram’s defective algorithms, and their content being constantly removed only to be watered down then uploaded by white creators, users held the sharing app accountable for subpar management.
Instagram engineer Cameryn Boyd said, “We want to ensure that as Black creators’ content is being distributed as it already is, they are getting the proper attribution.” Alexis Michelle Adjei, a data analyst and label creator for the app, echoed Boyd’s statement saying, “Black creators and addressing that inequity in the creator ecosystem motivated their work.” Both women joined Meta in 2020 before their idea came into fruition in February.
When compared to Black trendsetters, twice as many white social media influencers and creators are earning at least $100,000. However, the Black community brings more content to the social app than any other race. A study showed how some Black TikTok users shared a similar experience, citing a censoring of their content.
There’s no word as far as when or how the new feature will be introduced, but Boyd emphasized that the duo’s idea will definitely help Black creators monetize more abundantly: “The hope is that [Black content creators] will now get the credit and that piece of content where their contribution can be traced back to their accounts so that people have the opportunity to follow them and they can grow their influence.”