I’m not gonna bother battling a post with hundreds of thousands of notes
but
Deviantart does not sell your art to third parties
That post you’ve seen is a huge mess
It’s been fact checked to death
It circles around every so often I’ve probably seen it ten times at this point
You’re fine
Your art is fine
Professionals have used that site for years and years and still use it without any issue. I’ve used it. The only reason I stopped using it was because I got tired of harassment but that’s not Deviantart’s fault.
Deviantart lets you limit sharing. It lets you sell prints. It has a huge amount of flexibility. It allows you to watermark your art. Deviantart is a perfectly fine alternative for artists and fanartists.
Honestly, Elicia wouldn’t give 1 (one) corn chip to a site that is up to something sneaky, so if she says it’s good that’s all I need to know.
My main issue with that post going around about the Hot Topic art theft is that it isn’t actually theft. The DA post is a fake, and the art itself was officially licensed.
That doesn’t mean you don’t still have risks—as with any site, you should protect your art. But the third party boogeyman is Tumblr hysteria. Deviantart DOES sell your art, yes, but it’s only to people you choose to sell it to in the form of prints if you choose to license your art that way.