How Political Campaigns Are Secretly Paying Influencers

The purchase of elections is nothing new but it’s long past time to put a stop to it and to impose criminal penalties for this unethical behavior regardless of which political party does it.

ANY payment OUT to a source that reaches as much, if not more in some cases, viewership as any television/cable/radio program needs to be reported! I have no doubt there are "influencers" singing the praises of candidates they know NOTHING about, except they put money into their pocket for the endorsement.

The other scary thing is that young people are believing the OPINIONS of influencers to be actual NEWS. They are listening to a talking head parroting whatever message they have been trained to deliver. TRUE journalism is close to being extinct. Find a REAL and RELIABLE source for news is getting more and more difficult. Makes me more grateful that Upward News is available!

They certainly should be required to disclose all payments, both foreign and domestic sources.

Yes. People seeing these opinion videos need to know where they are coming from.

Absolutely without question. Payment for opinions is Fraud.

Yes, of course. Otherwise, it is immoral and unethical IMHO.

ABSOLUTELY!

Everyone else has to, so yeh; definitely!

Absolutely. And make a BIG deal out of it. It has to be federal legislation with truly high fines for violations and some high profile arrests, in order to make the point stick. The "Internet" and its corresponding "apps" on phones are not only destroying our children's attention spans and learning abilities, but they are seriously degrading their moral fiber and sense, or even knowledge, of ethics and the reason for laws. At this point, it is imperative to use law to re-establish a balance between what is expected and legal behavior, and what is unacceptable and illegal. These new technologies do not yet have an adequate legal framework.

Campaign reform has never been needed as much as now. The bill Rep Luna is a good step indeed, but Congress needs to be aggressive if fixing how what I think is fraudulent influence. Of course, they will be reluctant to do anything because many in Congress are benefitting from it. Just as the fraud in Minnesota and California has to be fixed, campaigns benefitting by paying influencers to "influence" voters is fraud. If candidates can't win on their own merit, then cheating the system shouldn't be allowed.

100% they need to put in the description and in the video that the video has been paid Advertising for (insert name or organization)

Absolutely they should disclose all payments they take for any form of advertising. "Influencing" is just another form of advertising in my view, and a very deceptive one.

WTF? Do people really get the news from social media? That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard. “Influencers” are nothing more than a kid standing in a hall at school spreading rumors!

The biggest problem I see is peoples own ignorance. I would never in a million years think that trusting ‘news’ on social media is a good idea. How dumb is that!?!?!?

Full disclosure on income? Well ya!

I am against it for the sole reason that, Influencers, in many cases, are small businesses that are not required to disclose their finances. Campaigns are required to disclose their spending. The problem is tracking the money.

Yes. Why not? It’s unethical. It’s deceptive. It’s dishonest. Etc, etc,

Yes, of course

Yes! Political influencing for personal gain, no matter the means, should be disclosed.

Yes, newspapers have to; influencers are "sharing news" and opinions.

Yes make them disclose to whom they are peddling their "influence" for payment! Is that not a bribe? I am deeply saddened that there even IS a "profession" called Influencer.

Of course!

Absolutely! The hidden political agenda has turned to sedation.

Yes.

Yes, but that’s not enough. All elections should limit donations to the citizens of the jurisdiction of the election. Residents of one state should not be allowed to donate to a candidate or cause at any level in a different state. This includes senators and representatives to the House.

Yes but how do you police it? Can we legally require each influencers to file an expense report each year when filing their business taxes listing where their income came from? Then we will see unrecognizable business resources listed such as Russian government payments covered up by fake corporations or associations. No different when we ask for data from our own Federal agency Homeland Security on whether their arrests are only of felons or criminals? Than

Yes.