Dem
52
Ties
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GOP
47
A number of young influencers on social media have acquired large followings for various reasons. Some are into sports, others are into lifestyle topics like beauty, food, wellness, finance, or technology. Some are into politics. Politicians have noticed, and are now paying influencers to make pitches for them.
This is much more insidious than paid television commercials, because commercials are labeled as such and everyone knows the people in them are actors who don't especially care about the products they are pitching and are just spouting a memorized script the director gave them in return for money. Social media influencers act like they are your friend who is trying to help you because they are kind people. If followers discovered that they were endorsing some candidate because the candidate was paying them to do so, that changes the picture entirely, so very few influencers admit to being paid shills.
A study by The New York Times uncovered some of this by combing through candidates' finance reports. For example, Josh Greene, a left-wing social-media star with 800,000 followers to his podcast, has taken money from at least seven politicians. When Tom Steyer was running for governor of California, Steyer paid Greene $21,500 for plugs. This comes out to 2.69¢ per follower. Influencer Carlos Eduardo Espina, who has 14 million followers, got Steyer to pay him $400,000. Michigan U.S. Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed's (D) super PAC has also paid Greene. Many other influencers also put their mouths where the money is.
Katie Porter, another former California gubernatorial candidate, paid 12 influencers a total of $139,500. The biggest payment, $25,000, went to Avery Cyrus, who has 9.5 million TikTok followers. At that rate, a follower costs 0.26¢, about a quarter of a penny per follower. Because the whole business is ad hoc and secretive, Cyrus probably didn't know that Greene was charging 10x more than she was. Since candidates know that most influencers aren't aware of what they are worth, Porter could buy off Cyrus for $25,000, when Cyrus might have been able to demand and get $250,000.
From the candidates' viewpoint, paying influencers is a cheap way to reach a large audience. It is also completely unregulated. Best of all, the viewers think they are getting unbiased advice, not a paid political ad, so the ads are likely more effective than spots that are labeled as paid ads. The only way a viewer would know their influencer "friend" is a paid pitchman or pitchwoman is by searching though candidates financial statements, and even then, not always, since payments are often routed through intermediaries.
There are now also companies that facilitate buying influencers. In the past they would have called themselves advertising agencies, but they are more discreet now. A company called SideShift claims to have a million creators who are willing to pitch products and candidates on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and Facebook for (modest) payment. It is not exactly child labor, since most of the influencers are over 18, but many are happy to get paid at all, and are not driving a hard bargain. The way SideShift apparently works is that the advertiser posts what he or she wants, then creators pitch themselves and advertiser chooses one or more. SideShift gets $299/mo. from the advertisers and 3% of the payment.
The whole business of undisclosed paid ads is ethically challenging and legally murky. TikTok's terms of service ban all paid political advertising. How does paying an influencer money to promote a candidate differ from hiring a professional actor to recite a script promoting a candidate on camera? Some day John Roberts will have to decide, but not yet.
While we are on the subject of paid influencers, it is worth noting that candidates are not the only ones buying influencers. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has been actively hiring conservative military veterans with large online followings to promote his policies in a stealthy way. These include Air Force Col. Rob Maness (ret.) with 135,000 followers on eX-Twitter, Army Col. Kurt Schlichter (ret.), who has 620,000, and Army Col. Thomas Anderson (ret.), who has 323,000. Also working on this project is "DataRepublican," the nom de web of Jennica Pounds, a special DoD employee who has refused to explain what her job there entails, but it seems to relate to a lot of posting on social media. None of this was known until The Bulwark broke the story 4 days ago. It is entirely possible that Hegseth has committed a federal felony by using public money for political purposes, a violation of the Hatch Act. Given the secret nature of this work, these news fragments are likely to be only the tip of the iceberg. (V)