Self-documenting and self-branding are becoming basic not just to “influencing” but to all forms of work. The mark of influencer creep is the on-edge feeling that you have not done enough for social media platforms: that you can be more on trend, more authentic, more responsive — always more.

“Influencer” and “creator” aren’t really different jobs, but the opposition of the two terms helps structure a variety of hierarchies: Less experienced or female content producers or competitors are more likely to be “influencers,” while “creators” testify to the economic generativity of social media platforms and entrepreneurial opportunities for audiences.

The practice of influencers is not some marginal form of social media marketing but a form of cultural production and a mode of self-employment that is becoming paradigmatic. Algorithmic tools designed to determine influencers’ “brand safety” — essentially their ability to work — reproduce existing forms of discrimination, linking “safety” and profitability with whiteness. Soon all workers may be subject to such scrutiny.