The truth of what Avid did to so many people has reminded me of something that I think is worth being mindful of with regards to communities.
When a creator prides themselves on creating a safe space, they also create an easy place to manipulate.
No, not everyone who says they want their communities to be a safe and welcoming place is planning on manipulating you. No, it's not your fault that you sought out a place to try and relax and feel comfortable. However, it is very, very easy to turn "safe spaces" dangerous.
The idea of a place being safe relies on morality. Weaponizing, or simply utilizing, the concept of morality makes it easy to control vulnerable people. You wouldn't want to make this place toxic, right? Disagreements are harmful, distressing things and this is a Safe Space so please keep it down. Why would you disagree with me, anyway? I'm a Good Person with Good Morals, and if you disagree on something that makes you a Bad Person who should reconsider this. If you question something "good" then that's clearly because you support the opposite thing, which is "bad" and problematic. Hey, that one community member follows someone who has a second, private account to post art I don't like, so we should harass them--sorry, bring it to their attention so that they unfollow them and block them because they made me uncomfortable, which is morally bad. You don't understand the problem? You must also be a bad person. The fact that you had to ask means you secretly agree with them.
It's very easy to guilt-trip your fans into doing something, whether that's unsubscribing from another creator or mass-harassing a fellow fan.
There's nothing wrong with wanting a safe community to exist in. There's nothing wrong with blocking someone for literally any reason. And there is nothing about the above behavior that is inherent to "safe spaces" over other communities, because any group of people can do this. I'm only highlighting the ones who proclaim themselves as safe because they're establishing a precedent and claiming it as inherent to them, which makes it easier to leverage that identity.
Note: this is not about cutting discriminatory people out. This is not about banning racist chatters or transphobic twitter users or anything like that. When I say "disagreements" I don't mean threats to one's life.
This is about the little things, nuances that seem harmless but can build up into something more controlling.
Manipulation isn't about telling you "you should believe this." Manipulation is about telling you what already sounds right to you so that it can then branch off of that to make additional suggestions more palatable.