Reason Roundup
Liz Wolfe | 8.28.2024 9:30 AM
Influencers and the DNC: "Federal Election Commission rules require paid campaign advertising to carry a disclaimer notice identifying who paid for the communication," reports Lee Fang for his Substack. "However, payments to individual influencers represent a grey area of completely unregulated campaign finance. No federal rules require disclosure when a TikTok star or Instagram personality is paid to promote an election-related message. Although efforts have been made to reform election transparency rules, little has changed. Last December, the FEC formally punted on the issue."
But Fang has found that campaigns—including those of Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz—have been "showering funds on social media influencer marketing agencies," which in turn contract out with individual content creators. Given the lack of disclosure from these agencies, it ends up being very difficult to see which influencers ultimately get paid.
What we do know, per Fang's reporting: Harris-Walz shelled out $1.9 million to Village Marketing Agency. "The company previously worked on the 2020 Biden campaign and........