Influencers Paid to Astroturf Politics
Influencers are paid under the table to promote or attack certain politicians.
Political influencers on X/Twitter are being paid to push hit pieces on politicians and even gambling, all while being paid under the table without disclosure or reporting.
We’ve written previously about organizations that were paying online political influencers to do everything from promote movies to defend politicians here in Texas.
But recently ConservativeOG, another organization engaged in the practice of undisclosed paid social media promotion, has made news after X took away the checkmark status of ConservativeOG and their affiliates.
In one instance, a Texas influencer was approached by ConservativeOG to promote the gambling website Kalshi:
Kalshi is a gambling addict’s dream—a site where you can place bets on real-word events. A likely example of undisclosed paid promotion of the gambling website Kalshi:
ConservativeOG mentions they’re managing over two hundred influencers for paid promotion. They also reveal that Isabella DeLuca, an X political celebrity with over 450,000 followers, charges $75 per post. DeLuca publishes around fourteen X posts per day. Some, we assume, are authentic and unpaid.
Another ConservativeOG affiliate we spoke to who asked to remain anonymous told us they were approached with a paid offer to run “coverage of certain stories that attack (specific politicians).” One of the stories that ConservativeOG was paying their affiliates to promote was an attack on Ben Carson published by AFPost:
Many are asking if these paid political attacks must be properly labeled as paid-for in order to be legal.
ConservativeOG is managed by twenty-three-year-old Preston Parra. Parra openly identifies as a “twink” (gay man) and has often found himself at the center of various controversies. Last year, Parra, who identifies as a Jewish conservative, was selling monthly membership plans to access photos of himself. He teased one photo by saying that once you pay him to unlock the photo, you can see his penis. There are also foot fetish photos, because of course.
Several Texans are or were part of ConservativeOG’s affiliate program, including anime-porn aficionado Mark Ivanyo.
We reached out to Parra for comment, he explained to us that he’s paying affiliates to “put money in their pockets” because some of these affiliates work “nine-to-five jobs and can’t be full-time influencers.”
Parra’s old campaign website, PrestonParraGA.com, now redirects to the Wikipedia definition of twink.
Why this matters
Online paid political influencers are modern-day paid lobbyists. Using their large platform to promote political figures, or in recent cases attacks on specific politicians.
A X poll we ran showed that citizens overwhelmingly want influencers to disclose if they’re being paid to promote political or special interest content.
People value political influencers for being outside the mainstream media sphere, which is often seen as inauthentic. However, the undisclosed nature of many paid promotions on platforms like X and Instagram Reels suggests that not all endorsements you see are sincere.
This situation also brings up questions about the funding behind these promotions and if they are regulated enough to prevent fraud or foreign influence in U.S. elections. Current buyers of these promotional slots include political candidates, nonprofit organizations, and political action committees (PACs).