On Using Influencers for Political Means

As former policeman Derek Chauvin’s trial continues in Minnesota, the city of Minneapolis is bracing itself for potential unrest. In an initial effort to curb violence and disinformation, the city planned to pay influencers from marginalized communities $2,000 to “combat misinformation” by sharing “city-generated and approved messages,” according to The New York Times. The plan was ultimately pulled, after receiving intense backlash; one community organizer, Toussaint Morrison, equated these messages to “propaganda.”

Morrison’s accusation is a hefty one. The American Historical Society says propaganda “isn’t an easy thing to define, but most students agree that it has to do with any ideas or beliefs that are intentionally propagated.” Propaganda can be disseminated through song, art, photos, or writing, and while not inherently evil, it has been used by regimes like the Nazis to justify their greatest atrocities.

One Minneapolis city council member, Andrea Jenkins, told USA Today that the city’s plan was not to spread propaganda, but to establish a more direct line of communication between the government and city residents.

”It is a reality that social media is a dominant part of our society, so it’s not really clear to me why the city shouldn’t be communicating in this manner,” said Jenkins.

Morrison’s fear that a government body would utilize social media as a tool of propaganda is legitimate. In the wake of George Floyd’s death at the hands of Chauvin, the public has engaged in a broader discussion of police brutality, including how federal and state governments are complicit in perpetuating it. This understandably raises questions for citizens about what “city-generated and approved messages” would entail, and how neutral they can be.

A campaign of this type also wouldn’t mark the first time influencers have been used for political means. In the lead-up to the 2020 election, Michael Bloomberg’s campaign was famous for asking influencers to share content to make Bloomberg appear “cool” to their audiences.

Because influencer marketing is relatively new to the political sphere, it isn’t as well regulated as influencers’ commercial advertisements; the Federal Trade Commission requires influencers to put “#ad” in the description of every sponsored post for products. Wired reported that the Federal Election Commission, which is in charge of regulating political advertising, hasn’t created in-depth rules for internet political advertising, leading to a lack of transparency and risk for users to be unknowingly influenced.

Even though neither Bloomberg’s campaign nor Minneapolis’s planned investment in influencers has generated any consequential propaganda, Americans should still be concerned about the potential for social media influencers to be used as political tools. We need only look to other countries to see how this practice could play out: Middle Eastern influencers have used their platforms to push false narratives in support of their governments, especially in the face of international criticism. The Guardian reported that after the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, Saudia Arabia recruited influencers to distract the public and boost tourism with luxurious social media posts. The Guardian also pointed to Egyptian “social media ambassadors” whose content looks “a style worthy of a travel blogger.” The United Arab Emirates also attempts to monitor the influencer industry by requiring influencers to pay a hefty fee to register with the government.

This kind of content, they argue, while not directly addressing government action, is designed to give a false impression to the viewer about how these countries function.

“State-sanctioned influencers function as a fig leaf for dictatorial regimes using the internet to surveil the activists and citizens who once fuelled protests,” they wrote.

If America has learned anything over the last five years, it’s that we are not immune to the forces that have limited freedom in other countries, including propaganda and disinformation. Americans have a right to be wary of any attempt to perpetuate practices that could threaten their freedom.

”What most of us don’t see is that last stage of [political] organizing, and it’s happening on social media and often hidden away on anonymous and encrypted platforms,” USC professor Karen North told USA Today. “This is so powerful enough as an emerging trend we're not moving away from.”