Link Graph

A link graph is the network of connections between a creator's presence and the wider web — the sources that drive traffic to them and the destinations their own links point toward. It is a subset of the broader evidence graph, focused specifically on referral and linking relationships.

Link graphs matter for payout compliance because the most revealing signals about a creator are frequently off-platform. A storefront that sells nothing prohibited on its face may nonetheless receive most of its traffic from communities organized around piracy, or route buyers outward to a channel where the prohibited transaction actually happens. Content classifiers, which examine only what is posted on the platform, cannot see this.

Analyzing the link graph turns these relationships into usable signals: where does this creator's audience come from, and where are they being sent. Those two questions often separate a genuinely low-risk creator from one whose visible storefront is a front.

This definition is provided for general educational purposes.