Internet

More and more political campaigns are trying to get their messages out to younger generations. How do they do this? Both major parties are paying internet influencers to create content, usually video messages, in various social media like TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, X, and others.

So the question is, do these influencers have to disclose to viewers when they were paid to espouse a particular point of view (which probably was there own anyway)? Here’s what one influencer says:

And here’s what the law says. The Federal Trade Commission has specific rules requiring infuencers to clearly disclose material connections they have with companies if they were paid for their opinions. In a commercial context, they believe that since this is a kind of paid advertising, anyone seeing it has a right to know what they are seeing or hearing may have been influenced by the money the person was paid.

But the FTC regulates trade and commerce and opinions spouted by internet influencers about politcal issues and figures is not within their jurisdiction.

The Federal Election Commission (FEC) oversees political advertising. Last December they endeavored to modernize regulations governing internet communications, but decided not to require internet influencers to disclose to viewers and readers if they were paid by a political entity. Some of commissioners at the FEC disagreed saying this was a missed opportunity.

Some states have begun requiring social media influencers to disclose if they were paid to espouse a particular political opinion on a candidate or issue. Last year, California passed such a law. And in June, the Texas Ethics Commission passed a requirement that influencers have to disclose if a post or video is a paid political advertisement.

Various social media platforms have their own rules that posters must follow.

*MOUSE PRINT:

TikTok has the strictest policy — banning political advertising entirely, including branded political content from creators. Instagram and Facebook, owned by Meta, allow for paid political ads and sponsored political content from creators as long as the group is registered in its ad library. … And X, formerly Twitter, lifted its political ads ban last year. — Politico

What is your opinion? Should influencers who are paid to espouse a particular political point of view disclose that fact, whether the law requires it or not?

[Please do not turn the comments into a Trump vs. Harris, or democrats vs. republicans discussion.]