Why I Am Being Strategic About Losing IG Accounts

I’ve lost multiple IG accounts in less than 12 months, and every time it happens, I get the same vague explanation from Instagram: “doesn’t follow our community standards.” As unfortunate as this is, I can say that I am no longer surprised by it, instead, I’m being strategic about it.

Here is what is actually happening

Platforms move in anticipation of governments, and we have seen this pattern before. On March 22–23, 2018, Craigslist shut down its entire U.S. personals section. This occurred two days after the Senate passed the FOSTA-SESTA package on March 21, and 19 days before President Donald Trump signed the bill into law on April 11, 2018.

Banks have done the same thing to adult creators for years, closing accounts and dropping clients doing completely legal work, not because of a law requiring them to but because of what they anticipated was coming. SWR Data found that adult creators lose access to a financial institution despite doing completely legal work, something we took to Congress, and Corey Silverstein has been documenting it from the legal side for just as long.

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I don’t think my Instagram losses are any different. The legislation is leaning one way and the platforms are already moving. That is the pattern, and we are inside of it right now…

It is clear that Congress is not debating whether they want age verification laws, they have already decided that they do. What is happening right now is that they are still working out the details, specifically which sites have to comply and at what threshold. This threshold decision carries real weight because it is the difference between a law that lands on adult platforms and a law that lands on the entire internet, and mainstream media is yet to talk about it.

The federal bill currently in play doesn’t have that threshold sentence in the version that is publicly available, and the committee voted on a substitute amendment on August 5, 2026 (which is yet to be released). nobody outside of that room has read it, so I don’t know what they voted on…

But the publicly available version does not have it. What that means for your business is what I broke down in this week's YouTube video.

I want to say something that I think gets lost in how our community talks about legislation.

Just like financial advisors renew their licenses, and real estate brokers and attorneys stay current with continuing education requirements, adult content creators should also know the facts and the legislation involved in their business. Because you are running a real business in an industry that is actively being legislated and the creators who understand what they are looking at will make different decisions than the ones who are panic reacting.

I live in Tennessee, where first offense in my state is a felony…

Felony. That is the word sitting underneath every irreversible business decision I make. And it is exactly why I have spent the last several years diversifying my income.

I learned from the 2021 OnlyFans whiplash. I had known for years that I needed to diversify away from having one platform as my home base, but I got comfortable. I put all of my eggs in one basket while telling myself I would fix it later. I waited until it became a fire and I regret putting my nervous system through that more than I regret the money.

This is especially important because I have a team that depends on SexWorkCEO and on MelRose Michaels as their main source of income. They are like family to me (some are actual family), and we go through the roller coaster together. When I lose real money it does not just affect me. It affects the people I employ and the family I provide for.

I will tell you more about what that fire actually cost me on Friday’s podcast episode, because the lesson I learned is the most useful thing I can hand you right now, and it belongs in its own conversation.

For now, three things worth doing this week regardless of how any of this resolves.

1. Before you react to any age verification headline, find where the check happens. On the device, at the app store or at the individual website.

2. Check what you are actually looking at. A filed bill, a passed law and a platform announcement have completely different timelines.

3. Pull your last 30 days of new paying subscribers by source. New paying people only, broken out by where they came from. You want that number right now no matter which way any of this lands, because if one platform is doing most of the heavy lifting that is a business risk that has nothing to do with any bill.

If you want to track this without doom scrolling, here are the five places I check. The full playbook is inside CEO Society.

• The committee revote.
  Where: the Senate Commerce Committee markups page. What you are looking for: S.737 appearing on an executive session agenda.

• The amended text.
  Where: search “S.737” on congress.gov. What you are looking for: any version listed beyond “Introduced” in the progress bar.

• Whether it lands in conference.
  Where: news on H.R. 7757, the KIDS Act. The House already passed that package in June and the Screen Act is Title I of it.

• The two alert lists actually worth being on.
  The Free Speech Coalition is working this bill directly and they publish when something moves. And Silverstein Legal Alerts from Corey Silverstein, an attorney who actually practices in this industry.

• State copycats.
  Watch for new state bills using the same threshold-less language. South Dakota already passed one and its definition is nearly word for word the federal wording.

The pattern is not new. Platforms move before governments finalize anything and banks move before any law required them to. The question has never been whether this affects us, it is whether you are watching before it costs you or after.

I learned that the expensive way in 2021. My team felt it, my family felt it and I carried the weight of knowing I had seen it coming and done nothing. I am not willing to go through that again. I do not think you should have to either.

Not putting my nervous system through that again,

MelRose

P.S. If you have been losing IG accounts and wondering whether it is connected to any of this, you are not imagining it. Come find us inside CEO Society, where we share real time updates, strategies, and support.