The influencer persona is a corporate shield against public cancellation risk.

Evidence

The Corpocene describes the moment in which capital is anthropomorphized, as the individual aspires to act as the equivalent of vertically integrated capital—an aspiration designed to move the protections afforded the corporation onto individuals in reaction to the “risk” of living one’s life in public view. To protect against cancellation, the “public” front of the corporation—meaning the persona of the influencer as presented online—conceals the business arrangements still equated with the “self,” arrangements hidden behind what is visible over social media. If one cannot manage this corporate divide between public image and private investment, like Love Taza’s Naomi Davis, then one slowly vanishes from the internet, from social media, from a career of luxury and influence, all as one’s livelihood dries up. — Grant Bollmer, Katherine Guinness, The Influencer Factory, 389

Categorization

• XREF: Ties to the reader’s stated frame: the influencer persona is the firm’s public-facing form; personal failure to maintain the corporate divide ends the career, connecting to labor theory of value questions about what is sold.