Tom Steyer's undisclosed influencer payments raise concerns about political advertising transparency
By
Taylor Lorenz
3d ago· 9 min readenInsight
100/100
Golden Brown
Bagelometer↗
The kind of bagel that ruins lesser bagels for you.
Score100TypeanalysisSentimentnegative
Summary
The article examines how California gubernatorial candidate Tom Steyer has been paying influencers hundreds of thousands of dollars for political promotion, with most failing to include proper disclosure on their posts. Examples include $400,000 to YouTuber Carlos Eduardo Espina, $50,000 to FOOS GONE WILD, and $25,000 to The Shade Room. The piece argues that this influencer political advertising boom is undermining democratic transparency and poisoning public discourse.
Key quotes
· 3 pulledProgressive YouTuber Carlos Eduardo Espina received $400,000 from the Steyer campaign.
FOOS GONE WILD, an Instagram page with 3.3 million followers that posts viral clips received $50,000.
Instagram tea page The Shade Room received another $25,000.
The influencer political advertising boom is poisoning democracy.
