Dem
47
GOP
53
Social media is teeming with influencers and wannabe influencers, with nano, micro, milli, kilo and mega groups of followers. A posting about some politicians to thousands or millions of followers can have a big effect, even if it is highly distorted or entirely made up. In the Texas Democratic Senate primary, a Dallas-based content creator named Morgan Thompson posted a TikTok video claiming James Talarico called his former primary opponent a "mediocre Black man." Talarico said his comment was mischaracterized but the media grabbed the TikTok and ran with it.
Democrats are noticing that many TikTok influencers, especially Republican ones, are playing fast and loose with the rules in ways actual journalists would never do (or would get a lot of flak if they did). Since many people now get their news only from TikTok, this has become a serious problem, especially for Democrats. Some Democratic campaign staffers described TikTok as "the Wild West," "a tinderbox" and "a chaos ecosystem," since many influencers spread conflict and misinformation in order to get attention.
Another issue is money. The FEC does not require influencers to report whether they have been paid to promote or demote political candidates or causes. This has allowed dark money groups to buy online influence with no accountability at all. It's even worse than PACs. Some Democratic staffers have reported influencers blackmailing them: "For a fee, I'll post something positive about your candidate. But if you don't pony up, it will be a negative posting." It is bad enough when influencers just post their own opinions, but when their opinions are up for sale, it gets much worse.
Pay-for-post schemes are rampant and very cost effective. One content creator was offered $2,000 to post nice things for their candidate by a left-leaning group and $36,000 to post not-nice things by a right-leaning group. These amounts are very small compared to radio or television ads and probably much more effective since followers tend to believe what their influencer says. Democrats are only now figuring out how to manage this space. Republicans already have it worked out. They have worked with the influencers for years. Democrats are definitely playing catch-up here. (V)