Focus at Four: Expert on the ethics of paid political influencers
BRYAN, Texas (KBTX) – The Texas Ethics Commission has begun the process of creating rules for political advertising on social media.
Initial approval was given last week that would require people online to disclose if they are being paid for political advertisements.
This comes not long after the Texas Tribune reported that a company, Influenceable LLC, paid online influencers to defend Attorney General Ken Paxton ahead of his impeachment trial back in September.
Professor Kirby Goidel joined First News at Four on Monday to discuss the issue of disclosure.
One issue Goidel pointed out, people might not trust what they see influencers supporting, including those in power.
“The reason you don’t want to disclose if you’re a political campaign is because you want people to get information from sources that they believe are trusted that aren’t being paid, that aren’t bought and paid for. By making them disclose, then you create the appearance that they are getting paid. When it comes to products, that doesn’t appear to matter as much,” Goidel said.
He also said that though the issue is a gray area, it is one worth exploring because of the implications it has for the future.
“We want to protect free speech, and we especially want to protect free speech along political issues. It’s harder to limit. You’re not going to be able to say we can’t allow companies to pay people to participate in this way. But we can say, at a minimum, citizens who are reading online media need to know whether or not a company or a group is paying this person to make this point,” Goidel said.
