Campaigns pay influencers to avoid violating political advertising rules

The Federal Election Commission oversees campaign finance law, including political ads. They do not have any regulations specific to influencers. Traditional advertising, such as radio and television ads, requires disclosure of who paid for the content.

PACs must report how money is spent. However they are not required or required to disclose names of influencers and accounts they share. Campaign Fund recipients and PACs do not have the legal obligation to disclose the funds received.

“Influencers can create the illusion of popularity for certain organizations, campaigns, politicians, and companies, especially in circumstances where we’ve seen influencers not disclose how they get paid,” said Samuel Woolley, director of advertising research at the University of Texas. The Austin Center for Media Engagement.

Woolley, who has studied social media’s manipulation of public opinion, said he was concerned about transparency. Influencers might be afraid of losing their followers if they promote content clearly marked as sponsored or sponsored by a political organization or candidate.

FEC data indicates that campaigns and political actions committees spent over $300 million on advertising, digital consultancy, and social networking during the current election cycle. It is difficult to quantify how much went directly to influencers as campaigns and PACs often pay companies to contract with them.

It’s available on platforms such as Twitter and TikTok Banned political adsTikTok has banned political advertisements from paid influencers But in statementEric Hahn, TikTok’s Head of US Safety, acknowledged that this was true in the lead-up to the midterm election. Undisclosed political propagandaInfluencers remain a problem.

Even though social media companies try to report sponsored content, it can be difficult for users to know if a post was paid for or paid by their beliefs. Laura Edelson, associate director for cybersecurity for democracy at New York University’s Tandon School, said that even though they attempt to report such posts, it can be difficult for users to identify whether a post has been paid for. engineering.