Study: Influencers are increasingly spreading political messages covertly

Influencer-driven political content on social networks poses a serious challenge to transparency, accountability and electoral integrity in the EU. The civil rights organization Civil Liberties Union for Europe (Liberties) complains about this in a study. According to the study, millions of users, especially young people, perceive relevant social media actors as "trustworthy voices". However, when political actors pay influencers to spread their messages directly or indirectly without clear disclosure, "voters are misled".

Considering the increase in political campaigns on the internet, what appears to be an authentic opinion is often "in reality paid advertising", Liberties explains in the analysis. This undermines well-founded decisions and public trust. At the same time, this approach enables political parties and actors to circumvent transparency rules, especially during election periods.

As part of the study, researchers from participating organizations observed the trends in election advertising in the six EU countries Germany, Bulgaria, France, Hungary, Poland and Spain in 2024. They assessed the extent to which very large online platforms and search engines complied with their obligations under the Digital Services Act (DSA). They were struck by this: While classic relevant research focuses on traditional political ads, influencer content is largely overlooked. Liberties calls this a "blind spot" with massive consequences.

Dispute over TikTok influencers in Romania

In the USA in particular, the political exploitation of the influencer scam has been widespread since the 2020 presidential elections and the battle between Joe Biden and Donald Trump, the team points to other research findings. However, this practice is also increasingly leading to a "distortion of democratic processes in the EU through domestic manipulation and foreign interference with the aim of gaining geopolitical advantages".

In Romania, the 2024 presidential elections were initially canceled following a scandal involving paid TikTok campaigns, fake engagement and alleged Russian influence, Liberties cites as an example. The far-right candidate Calin Georgescu became the frontrunner thanks to TikTok, without a campaign budget or formal public relations work. According to experts, over 100 influencers were unwittingly paid to post vague political messages. At the same time, thousands of fake accounts flooded the short video platform with pro-Georgescu comments to increase their visibility.

A well-known influencer nicknamed the "King of TikTok" was later arrested for allegedly distributing almost one million US dollars in covert payments, according to the report. The case showed "how influencers, bots and opaque marketing platforms can be used as a weapon to influence voters while circumventing political transparency laws". Recently in Romania, right-wing populist George Simion won a clear victory in the first round of the presidential election and is said to have used similar social media tactics to Georgescu.

The EU should enforce the DSA better

Despite clear guidelines from the EU Commission for the 2024 EU elections, major platforms such as Meta, TikTok, YouTube and X have failed to implement "meaningful transparency measures for the content of political influencers", the civil rights campaigners complain. Although some banned political ads altogether, they offered no tools to uncover or disclose hidden sponsorship. As a result, political messages "continue to go underground and escape public scrutiny". Self-regulatory measures are "patchy, opaque and difficult for users and researchers to see through". According to the report, the legally required libraries with political ads are often incomplete, barely searchable or not available at all.

Liberties advises the Commission to tighten the guidelines and enforce the DSA more strictly. Platform operators, for example, are called upon to voluntarily implement mandatory labeling of influencer content that has been paid for or coordinated with political actors.

(olb)