Instagram rolled out a brand-new feature to help ensure that Black creators are correctly credited for their work.
The new feature is the brainchild of Alexis Michelle Adjei, a data analyst and engineer, Cameryn Boyd.
“Black creators and addressing that inequity in the creator ecosystem,” Adjei told NBC News.
Adding an “enhanced tags” feature allows people’s self-assigned profile category to appear when tagged in photos along with their professional titles (such as “Photographer,” “Fashion Stylist,” “Rapper,” and “Makeup Artist”).
“Proper creative credit and recognition is a starting point for discovery, new opportunities, and economic empowerment. For many Black and underrepresented creators, crediting is an entryway to building a sustainable career as a creator while combating cultural appropriation and ensuring the world knows who is driving culture,” Instagram representatives announced in the press release.
According to statistics, white people earning more than $100,000 via the app doubles that of Black creators. And considering how much of popular culture is influenced by Black culture, the earnings disparities are a major red flag.
The new features should go a long way to even the playing field.
Several social media platforms have been accused of allowing white influencers to profit off Black talent and culture. TikTok’s white influencers were called out for profiting off uncredited dances choreographed by Black creators, leading to TikTok’s Black community to go on “strike.”
“We want to ensure that as Black creators’ content is being distributed as it already is, they are getting the proper attribution so that they have the opportunity to get all of those growth and monetization and career-starting opportunities like their contemporaries are,” said Boyd. “It’s really critical, as we’re moving towards this new age where creators are so important and creators are really able to use their craft to support themselves in their lives, that Black creators are getting the same opportunity, as they’re already creating the content.”
The creators added that the attribution would not affect the algorithm, which determines what posts are in a user’s feed. The talented women said that the goal is to curb the problem of uncredited Black work.
