Vulnerable but not victims: Content creators’ individual and collective strategies to navigate and resist digital platforms

Within a platform governance paradigm, the content creator’s role seems to be placed in a position of vulnerability and resignation. This article examines the relationship between content creators and digital platforms, focusing on the views and practices of the former. To this end, in-depth interviews were conducted with eighteen Spanish content creators active on Instagram, TikTok, Twitch, YouTube and X. The results show that the participants perceive platforms as omnipresent, indecipherable and unreachable. However, the analysis also shows that participants respond to platforms with individual to collective strategies, ranging from responses that deal with the impact of the platforms’ rules to strategies that challenge the platforms’ governance. Moreover, these strategies are shaped by the negotiation between their values and the platforms’ default logic, showing different degrees of politicization. This work provides a better understanding of creator culture and offers insights into efforts to construct bottom-up governance where content creators could act as stakeholders within the digital platform ecosystem.