Who owns the content?

Black content creators play a big role in shaping culture on platforms like TikTok. Even though they don't always receive credit, they are still the ones driving many social media trends.

Creators like Tabitha Brown, Keith Lee, and BlameitonKway have built large audiences through food, storytelling, humor, and cultural commentary. Yes, their content is entertaining, but it also shapes trends and how people interact with food, lifestyle, and everyday content online.

A report from Rolling Stone noted that Black creators are often the originators of viral trends but don’t always get credit as those trends spread to larger audiences.

Black creators can shape what goes viral, and still not be acknowledged. This is represented when videos get reposted without credit or when a trend is renamed by a different creator in an effort to claim ownership.

So even though Black creators are clearly shaping a lot of what we see online, they don’t always stay connected to their work once it starts moving through the platform.

This makes me question who is actually responsible for protecting the creator. Is it on users who repost content? Is it the platforms' algorithm that decides what is worth promoting and who gets seen?

Even as we try to answer this question, Black creators are shaping culture online. They're creating content that they won't be able to control how it's shared or credited once it's posted on their pages.

So I’m left with one simple question:

Should platforms do more to ensure credit remains with its original creators?