As influencers rise in politics, some call for tighter regulations on payments

Hundreds of social media influencers were credentialed for the first time to attend major party conventions in 2024. Influencers were also invited to political events ranging from holiday parties in Pennsylvania to rallies in Texas and White House events under both Biden and Trump administrations. Campaigns increasingly view influencer social media personas as a way to reach younger and harder-to-reach voters. The perceived authenticity of influencer communication is a key reason campaigns partner with them. In California’s gubernatorial race, some creators who received payments from Tom Steyer’s campaign did not disclose that they were paid to create posts. Limited federal disclosure rules for paid content and few local requirements have prompted concerns that voters may not recognize sponsored messaging.

"In the 2024 election, hundreds of social media influencers were credentialed for the first time to attend the Democratic and Republican conventions. They have been invited to holiday parties in the Pennsylvania governor's mansion, to political rallies in Texas and to events at the White House by both the Biden and Trump administrations."

"The role of influencers is surging as candidates and groups across the political spectrum see their social media feeds and personas as a pathway to younger audiences and harder-to-reach groups of voters. "You have that sense of authenticity, like a friend is talking to you," said Emma Briant, a professor at Notre Dame University's Lucy Family Institute for Data & Society who studies propaganda."

"But the nature of that partnership has come into question in California's hotly contested gubernatorial race after it emerged that a number of content creators - some with millions of followers, others with only a handful - had taken payments from the campaign of Democratic candidate Tom Steyer and not disclosed that they were paid to create those posts."

""The problem is that it doesn't look like an ad," said Saurav Ghosh, a former enforcement attorney at the Federal Election Commission. "It ends up really getting people at a place where they're not skeptical and not able to tell the difference between what's voluntary and where the influencer""

Read at Los Angeles Times