Source: NewsGuard's Reality Check
NewsGuard's undercover operation caught 60 political influencers across follower tiers willing to accept $2,000 payments to promote a congressional candidate via TikTok. The sting reveals that paid influence peddling has become normalized and transactional. Platforms' creator economies have inverted the trust equation—influencers operate as mercenaries for hire, and the infrastructure to facilitate this at scale already exists: payment processors, consultancy intermediaries, influencer databases. Political ad disclosure relies on platforms and creators to self-police. When influence is openly commodified with no friction, regulatory regimes premised on transparency lose their force.