So, we took a look over at Taylor Lorenz’s timeline to see if there was any new Washington Post drama to write about and instead found this article she shared from Vice on how a “PR firm is paying TikTok influencers to promote liberal causes and hype Democrats’ middling accomplishment.”
LOL. Taylor Lorenz is good now?
Her tweets are still protected, so here’s a screenshot:
According to Vice, the TikTokers are not disclosing the payments:
https://twitter.com/timmarchman/status/1534160470864707584
Even worse? The PR firm actually pitched Vice to see if they’d be interested in doing a story:
https://twitter.com/timmarchman/status/1534160794467942401
Whoops!
Last week, I got an email from an associate at a company called Hone Strategies, asking if I wanted to write about Vocal Media, which "recruits, trains and pays" influencers to make videos on "important policy topics" like gun violence and abortion. https://t.co/kF01PYqw0A
— Anna Merlan (@annamerlan) June 7, 2022
Yes, she *was* interested in doing a story:
This WAS super interesting to me, because the problem of undisclosed political influence campaigns on TikTok has been a known issue for a while. Here's a Mozilla report from 2019: https://t.co/iSDBRhuzin
— Anna Merlan (@annamerlan) June 7, 2022
This is against TikTok’s rules, but. . .
TikTok has tried to make rules around this, for instance banning what they called "paid political ads" in 2019, probably because they didn't want to be accused of subverting democracy like Facebook https://t.co/qmYLTjbeAW
— Anna Merlan (@annamerlan) June 7, 2022
“But, this is, as it turns out, pretty easy to get around if you just pay influencers directly. . .”:
But this is, as it turns out, pretty easy to get around if you just pay influencers directly, which is what the Mozilla report found and what Hone told me that Vocal is doing. One video they sent me rallied Taylor Swift fans against now VA-governor Glenn Youngkin, for ex.
— Anna Merlan (@annamerlan) June 7, 2022
However, Kristen Kiefer, vice-chair of the Houston County Democrats, says it’s totally cool for Dems to do this:
“I mean, good. It’s way better than the concepts the right is promoting via the same means. It’s about time they fought back.”
https://twitter.com/KristenKfromGA/status/1534172915704467456
Dems: “It’s fine when we do it”?
The logic here is very neatly encapsulated from this reply I just got from a Vice Chair at the Houston County Democrats: It's fine if we do it. https://t.co/VrSQ07jG0R
— Anna Merlan (@annamerlan) June 7, 2022
Kiefer doubled down, too:
“This isn’t a hypothetical, it’s well documented. It’s called astroturfing & it’s been heavily used by right wingers for years & it seems the only effective counter is more of the same. Is it good? Doubtful, but neither is doing nothing. https://t.co/t22rO3TFat”
https://twitter.com/KristenKfromGA/status/1534188004067123201
Oh well. Maybe Donald Trump will get his chance to ban TikTok when he’s re-elected and solve this problem once and for all?
Again, from the same Houston County Democrats Vice Chair: Astroturfing, maybe it's good when we do it? https://t.co/rxc6Gqtyf6
— Anna Merlan (@annamerlan) June 7, 2022
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