I woke up at 3:00 AM to a notification nobody wants to see: I was locked out of all my Meta accounts.

The automated flags cited “suspicious activity” and “community standards violations.” I haven’t posted anything out of the ordinary, just my usual artwork and personal updates. The only thing I can think of is a post I made commenting on the recent Perez Hilton situation, where I voiced a simple truth: mental health is no joke, no matter who it affects.

I managed to get back into Instagram, but my Facebook account is stuck in appeal limbo. It could take days to resolve, or it might never come back at all.

This situation is exact scenario I’ve been fighting to avoid: waking up to find that my platform, audience, and years of connection have vanished overnight because a single mega-corporation relies on automated AI bots to moderate millions of real human lives.

I love social media. I’ve built incredible friendships and a genuinely supportive artistic community there. But relying on one company that holds the keys to all our communication isn’t safe, healthy, or sustainable.

I’ve had this website for a while now, but I’ll be honest, I put off growing the newsletter here because I couldn’t decide which platform to settle on. That changes today. I should have been building our direct connection all along.

So, here’s where things stand: I’m still active on Bluesky, Instagram, and Threads. None of them have the same algorithm or audience size that Facebook gave us, but I’m hoping we can start migrating our community over to spaces where we actually have control.

I’d mean the world to me if you’d subscribe to this blog. It is 100% free. I have zero intention of ever putting up a paywall. I just want a reliable way to share my work and stay in touch with you.

Until we break away from massive corporations controlling how we interact, creators and readers will always end up on the losing end. Subscribe below, join me on Bluesky, or find me on Instagram and Threads at the links above.

I hope to see you here.