Political Influencers

[Jimmy Higgins]

Electoral-Vote has a nice bit that'll help you sharpen up the knives to end your suffering now on how people are paying influencers money for political props.

First off, this whole influencer thing is just frightening.

Influencer: Hi, I'm a user account and I talk and "have opinions". Help me level up my cult of personality.

Yes, influencers are a thing. It goes back to the late 19th century with newspapers/toilet paper and includes people like Walter Winchell back in the 40s to people like John Oliver today. But influencing is going viral.

Josh Greene is a rising left-wing social media star with his own podcast, nearly 800,000 followers and access to politicians like Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Mayor Zohran Mamdani of New York.

He has used that platform to support dozens of progressive candidates in the midterm elections, ranging from low-profile, down-ballot contests to some of the nation’s marquee Democratic primaries. In camera-facing videos, Mr. Greene informs his followers of his preferences, calling some candidates “the most viable” and, in other cases, declaring that “this is the candidate for you.”

He does not always tell his viewers that he is being compensated for his support.

But records show that Mr. Greene, 26, has received money from at least seven politicians, or outside groups supporting them, in the current campaign cycle, including several congressional candidates in New York and a super PAC linked to Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, the Senate nominee in Michigan. Tom Steyer, the former candidate for governor in California, paid him $21,500.

The FDA has standards for foods like ice cream. It might be time for the FCC to have standards for influencers. If you are being paid to promote something, you need to label yourself as a "political whore" and who you are whoring for. If NPR is going to tell us everytime that Google gives them money every time they report on Google, it is time these fake political people say likewise.

During California’s hard-fought primary this spring, Mr. Steyer’s campaign paid 17 influencers at least $5,000 apiece, including one, Carlos Eduardo Espina, who has over 14 million followers on TikTok and received a total of $400,000, campaign finance filings show.

Former Representative Katie Porter, who also ran unsuccessfully for California governor, paid 12 influencers a total of $139,500. One of them, a lifestyle creator named Avery Cyrus with 9.5 million followers on TikTok, received $25,000 for what appeared to be a single post claiming “Katie Porter’s thing works.”

Yes, even Katie Porter is paying for political whores.

Then we have this shit.

Corporate records show that the woman, Paige Dunmeyer, actually lives in Kansas City, Mo., and is registered to work with a U.G.C. company called SideShift. It’s not clear how much she was paid for her Michigan and Wisconsin videos, but she has earned more than $30,000 on SideShift for a variety of political and commercial campaigns, according to company records reviewed by The Times. Filings from Mr. Steyer’s campaign showed she received $1,320 for her efforts in that race. Ms. Dunmeyer did not respond to requests for comment.

A person is making videos as a variable persona. Influencers that are emoting Prescription Commercial qualities. But even then, those commercials need to say if the person is an actor just making shit up.

I get it, if we can't trust random strangers online who allege any number of things without an ounce of needing to back up who they are, what they claim... who can we trust?! But we are talking about Human Beings, and Human Beings are so easy to manipulate. This account got a million followers after a few months because the AI generated woman was pretty and very MAGA. It is like Fox News with their bimbo blondes, but even worse. Shortly, we won't even need to pay pretty people to say things, we can get AI'd people to say it live too! Free political speech is critical for a functional democracy, but this isn't free, it isn't remotely on the up and up. They are ads and should be treated as such. But beyond that, people need to take their political views and voting powers more seriously. I remember telling some younger workers who were talking about X and what they saw on TikTok, and I interjected, when you say you saw it on TikTok, the is where the conversation should end. Please click to find out why getting informed using Social Media is dangerous, the fourth reason will surprise you.

As a side note, I don't care what PAC paid for an advertisement. Just label it "This ad was paid for by Dark Money."

 

[ZiprHead]

The Trump military is doing the same.

 

[Tigers!]

I get it, if we can't trust random strangers online who allege any number of things without an ounce of needing to back up who they are, what they claim... who can we trust?!

Sounds like being on IIDB is a worry.

But we are talking about Human Beings, and Human Beings are so easy to manipulate. This account got a million followers after a few months because the AI generated woman was pretty and very MAGA. It is like Fox News with their bimbo blondes, but even worse. Shortly, we won't even need to pay pretty people to say things, we can get AI'd people to say it live too! Free political speech is critical for a functional democracy, but this isn't free, it isn't remotely on the up and up. They are ads and should be treated as such. But beyond that, people need to take their political views and voting powers more seriously. I remember telling some younger workers who were talking about X and what they saw on TikTok, and I interjected, when you say you saw it on TikTok, the is where the conversation should end. Please click to find out why getting informed using Social Media is dangerous, the fourth reason will surprise you.

As a side note, I don't care what PAC paid for an advertisement. Just label it "This ad was paid for by Dark Money."

Do you not have some sort of authorisation protocol?
In Australia ads for candidates or parties are supposed to include words to the effect "Authorised or approved by X and give a postal address."
If not on the ad it is automatically considered suspect.
Does not stop the ads but it means the ad is not protected by being considered legitimate political discourse.
Plus the ad can be sued, challenged etc.
Not perfect but does force producers to be more circumspect.

 

[Gospel]

While we’re at it, we might as well add AI influencers pretending to be ordinary citizens while being operated from another country.

 

[Bronzeage]

Influencers are a problem only for the easily influenced.

Most of our self labeled influencers are actually opportunists. They try to gauge the direction of the crowd and leap in front.

 

[Elixir]

Influencers are a problem only for the easily influenced.

You convinced me, you influencer, you!

 

[Patooka]

Are influencers obligated to disclose they are being funded/paid by a political campaign? I seem to recall cunts like Tim Pool and Benny Johnson getting in some hot water a few years back being paid Russian mouthpieces. Is that the same domestically as well?

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Are influencers obligated to disclose they are being funded/paid by a political campaign? I seem to recall cunts like Tim Pool and Benny Johnson getting in some hot water a few years back being paid Russian mouthpieces. Is that the same domestically as well?

No, they aren't required. But the question is should they be required.

 

[Patooka]

Are influencers obligated to disclose they are being funded/paid by a political campaign? I seem to recall cunts like Tim Pool and Benny Johnson getting in some hot water a few years back being paid Russian mouthpieces. Is that the same domestically as well?

No, they aren't required. But the question is should they be required.

I would say that during an election, it's very important fir voters to know where the money is from and where it's going to. If John Oliver was being paid by a PAC to do a specific episode, I would want to know who.

 

[Gospel]

Influencers are a problem only for the easily influenced.

Up until the easily influenced storms the capitol.

 

[TV and credit cards]

Who?

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Influencers are a problem only for the easily influenced.

Up until the easily influenced storms the capitol.

Let's be clear, that wasn't influencers as mentioned in the OP. That was the GOP backed media outlets. It was the worst kept conspiracy ever. It cost Fox News a lot of money.

The OP is about Digital Miniature Cults of Personality posting commercials online without actually saying they are a commercial. People shouldn't listen to them, but they do.

 

[TomC]

Are influencers obligated to disclose they are being funded/paid by a political campaign?

First you would have to define "influencer" well enough to survive a court challenge, but not so well that it gets weaponized.
Good luck.
Tom

 

[Gospel]

Influencers are a problem only for the easily influenced.

Up until the easily influenced storms the capitol.

Let's be clear, that wasn't influencers as mentioned in the OP. That was the GOP backed media outlets. It was the worst kept conspiracy ever. It cost Fox News a lot of money.

The OP is about Digital Miniature Cults of Personality posting commercials online without actually saying they are a commercial. People shouldn't listen to them, but they do.

Wow, it’s almost as if influencers such as Steven Crowder, Ali Alexander, Jack Posobiec, and Charlie Kirk never existed. Of course traditional media outlets played a role, but it wasn’t ginned up by cable news alone. It also depended on seemingly independent, relatable personalities delivering the same message directly to their followers. not just highly paid television personalities in suits.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Are influencers obligated to disclose they are being funded/paid by a political campaign?

First you would have to define "influencer" well enough to survive a court challenge, but not so well that it gets weaponized.
Good luck.
Tom

It already has been. That is the point.

 

[Patooka]

Are influencers obligated to disclose they are being funded/paid by a political campaign?

First you would have to define "influencer" well enough to survive a court challenge, but not so well that it gets weaponized.
Good luck.
Tom

I think you know, and I believe, it's gonna have to come to that.

To spell things out in crayon. Countries still look to America as an example of legislation (in a good way not as a Trump grift) and are willing to beat the drum. Please be the first.

 

[TomC]

Are influencers obligated to disclose they are being funded/paid by a political campaign?

First you would have to define "influencer" well enough to survive a court challenge, but not so well that it gets weaponized.
Good luck.
Tom

It already has been. That is the point.

What is your definition of "influencer"?
Also "paid" .
And "political campaign".

Maybe you have a legit definition of these words that can survive the current USA sociopolitical climate dominated by dark money and the media. Do please tell.
Tom

 

[ZiprHead]

Here's the story of a man who inadvertently became an influence.

He raged against the American Dream. His audience wanted more. A young father lost faith in his country’s defining idea and began to share his frustrations on social media.

His daughters were playing Uno at the kitchen table, so Wilton Lemieux stepped outside to record another video he didn’t want them to see.
The message he’d typed in his Notes app on this late summer afternoon was too heavy, he figured, for the fourth- and sixth-graders.

He walked down the driveway to his silver Nissan Pathfinder with the cracked windshield, sagging bumper and license plate frame that said AFGHANISTAN VETERAN. He slid into the front seat, where sun-faded photos of his late grandma and the girls obscured the speedometer, and propped his matte black iPhone on the steering wheel. He opened TikTok and stared into the camera.

“Why are they lying to the American public?” Wilton asked.

The 34-year-old single father pondered that question at the grocery store and the gas station, where $20 now filled a quarter of his tank instead of the usual half. His $200 weekly budget couldn’t keep up. For the fourth month, he’d dipped into his savings to cover the basics.
Alone in the car, Wilton pasted his words into a teleprompter app. He repeated himself three times, four times, five times until the tone he tried to keep gentle at home matched his inner monologue: angry, betrayed, grieving all he’d lost while trying to do everything right.

“Why are they lying to the American public?”

“They” were his shorthand for politicians, corporate suits and tech bros — the elites he viewed as too preoccupied with artificial intelligence and a White House ballroom and a war that never made sense to him while everyone he knew struggled with the rising cost of survival. Yet the president was on his television, declaring, “We never had the American Dream like we have it right now,” which sounded to Wilton like a sales pitch or a delusion or both.

Four months earlier, his faith in that national ideal died one evening at an ExxonMobil pump. Wilton remembers rage at yet another price hike, then clarity, then an ache to vent about what he couldn’t train his brain to stop noticing, like how sad his mom’s neighbor looked when she talked about working for 41 straight years and not being able to afford a vacation for the last 12.

Here is the 36 second video that created the sensation.

 

[scombrid]

While we’re at it, we might as well add AI influencers pretending to be ordinary citizens while being operated from another country.

NPR posted an article about a right wing party leading a regional election in Germany 50 minutes ago. Already hundreds of comments from propaganda bots. Few real people that I can see. Post something public to any of the socials with a key word or two like “far right”, AFD, Musk etc… and it will get mobbed by swarming chatbots.

 

[scombrid]

WFTV posted a story just now about staghorn coral being put planted for reef restoration down in the keys. A real person expressed skepticism at the benefit of the work without any reversal in warming trends.

Within a minute a profile called “Donald Dukes” commented that you can’t stop an ice age from ending. Donald Dukes is not a person. The chatbots just surveil 24/7 and spew spew spew.