Political social media content has been increasingly widespread ahead of the 15th General Election (GE15), and it is believed that this is due to some political parties paying local influencers to create content that promotes their party.
While the accused political parties have not publicly admitted that they were paying content creators on social media, a professional marketer has taken it online to prove that those influencer videos are in fact paid content.
According to Twitter user @JustinTWJ, there are two different tiers of influencers that political parties reach out to — Tier 1 for the well-known influencers and Tier 2 for influencers on a smaller scale.
This is a thread to prove that both BN and PN most likely been paying influencers to create TikTok content.
— not typical. (@JustinTWJ) November 16, 2022
I am someone who has pretty decent experience in KOL marketing and I’m here to “tunjuk bukti” so you all can stop asking for it.
For Tier 1, the user pointed out that he noted each of them did exactly two videos, which were created in the same style with one single hashtag.
As for Tier 2, influencers could be seen using the same captions and hashtags in their posts. In addition, they are exact copies of the rest, with the order of the hashtags the same.
Meanwhile, the user also noted one influencer who ‘supported’ two different political parties at the same time. “Yeah, can’t be a coincidence,” the influencer said.
Moving on to PN’s tier 2 influencers. Very likely handled by another agency or person but still you can tell that they are all paid.
— not typical. (@JustinTWJ) November 16, 2022
CAPTION – first and second screenshots are exactly the same
Content – All same same basically.
HASHTAGS – look at the order. Sebijik. pic.twitter.com/8zONeXKMus
Paid influencer = paid cybertroopers
The user then shared that some of these influencers are nothing but a bunch of script readers who share false information within the content.
Ending his post, the user advised voters not to follow these influencers as they are merely sharing insidious paid content. The user also urged voters to do their own research instead of relying on information from these influencers.
“Paid influencers = paid cybertroopers,” the user said.
Nonetheless, politically-based paid content is against all social media platform’s terms of service. Thus, viewers can report this content as false information.
What do you think about this? Share your thoughts!
