We need to decide once and for all, if the political influencer is a journalist, someone who adheres to a code of ethics, and reports to a news organization. Or an entertainer, actors for hire who will say what you want them to say in front of a camera. Because what we have now is a web conflicts of interests, questionable alliances, and doibious incentive structures. There's a misconception that here on TikTok we are free from the type of political influence that brought us here and away from traditional media in the first place. We take for granted that our favorite political influencers are synthesizing the world as they see it. It's a type of naïveté that I have been guilty of myself  I say we need to decide as people because our politicians particularly the current White House administration has decided that the political influencer can be both and I personally find that troubling. Just because it's out there, doesn't always mean it's out there. There's a reason why companies dump bad news on Fridays, or bury the lede, or choosing to stay silent about a specific topic on social media. Or timing an announcement during a major event. Like if you wanted to signal your support for a wildly unpopular bill, so you round up all the people most likely to make content about it and stick them in a room during the nation's biggest address. --- I honestly honestly don't know how this is not a bigger deal. But a popular political influencer, Alex, lol overruled  We now know that the democrats And that's the problem. To my knowledge, not a single political influencer beside loloveruled has disclosed any payments or offers of payments from the Democratic Party. In April, this side of TikTok was in flames about a group of influencers who accepted an invitation to the white house. A lot of people were mad about that. Some went as far as calling these influencers "feds." I found that characterization to be a bit much. After all, we don't know in which capacity these influencers engaged with the democrats. That by being there in front of prominent democrats, they can deliver our message. They can express our concerns about the TikTok ban and just the general crumbling of our democracy. But, respectfully, I believe that reasoning stands on faulty logic. The democrats decision to ban this app, and fund a genocide isn't a matter of a lack of understanding.