The question of how influencers wield their influence comes to a head
Fans are asking their favourite content creators to speak out about the crisis in Gaza. Many influencers seem unwilling to.
Like most of you, I’ve been in a constant state of shock and horror at Israel’s actions in Gaza over the past month. Writing a newsletter about online culture when unthinkable events are unfolding feels frivolous, and hasn’t been a priority. Having said that, recent events and online discussions gave me an idea for a newsletter that was related to Gaza but also still within my wheelhouse. If the question I address in this newsletter isn’t of interest to you, please do at least scroll to the bottom and check out some of the Palestinians both in Gaza and abroad doing important reporting and providing much needed analyses and perspectives during this time.
In the past month, over 11,100 people have been killed in Gaza - per The Washington Post, that’s one out of every 200 people. Over 4600 of those people have been children. At the time of writing, dozens of premature babies at al-Shifa Hospital are suffering without adequate medical care as a result of Israel placing Gaza under siege.
Earlier this week, Brittany Broski, an influencer who gained fame after going viral as ‘Kombucha Girl’, posted a video to her close friends list on Instagram complaining about her fans’ requests that she “address the situation in the Middle East.”
“What fuckin’ dystopian universe - sorry, it’s not funny, but it’s absurd - what dystopian universe do I have to address the situation in the Middle East at the top of a podcast episode? … In what universe am I a voice to speak on this? I am the opposite of the person that should be speaking on this, but because I have a checkmark, and I have over a million, immediately I’m qualified.”
Fans were outraged for several reasons, but top of the list was Broski’s hypocrisy; just two months ago, she had argued that people with influence have a responsibility to use it. “If you have a platform, and you have people’s ear, you have their attention, how dare you not sing about things that matter? How dare you not show things that are hard to watch for some people, and hard to embrace for some people? How dare you not do that. It is a responsibility that you have,” she said at the time.
After days of backlash, Broski responded to the critiques on her secondary TikTok account, opening her video by assuring fans that she completely understood why people were upset, telling her audience, “My silence hurt and confused a lot of people who love and support me, and for that I can’t tell you how sorry I am.”
In the video, she admits that she “waited too long” to talk about Palestine and clarified that she supported the cause of Palestinian liberation, and explained that she had convinced herself that people didn’t need her voice on this topic. “In the video, I’m talking about how absurd and dystopian it is to look to people who look like me for news and opinions and thoughts on what’s happening in Palestine.”
She continues to explain that when you become famous, nobody teaches you how to use your platform, and “the best that you can do is speak from the heart, and that’s what I try to do.” She also shared her concerns around the potential for her to spread misinformation, speak over people or “make an already awful situation worse - there’s a fear there.”
She also encourages her viewers to contact their elected officials, adding that she has done so repeatedly, and donate to Médecins Sans Frontières; she also names several prominent Palestinian journalists that people can follow for on-the-ground reporting.
As internet apology videos go, I’d say it’s one of the better ones - she repeatedly takes accountability for her relative silence, is candid about her reasons for her delay in speaking up, and provides her audience with actionable things they can do. Obviously, the ideal situation would have been to make a similar video a month ago, but as celebrity responses to Gaza go, it’s lightyears ahead of the responses from much more established celebrities which much larger platforms.
My first instinct when I heard about this drama was to ask the question Broski herself asked in the leaked video: who cares about her opinion on this issue? What could she have to say that would add value to the conversation?
But I also see where young fans of influencers are coming from. Most of them live in the United States, many of them are too young to vote or too young to feel adequately informed to participate in electoral politics, and they’re watching events unfold in Gaza that are unimaginable. They feel powerless.
At the same time, many of them live their entire lives online. No longer do they look to traditional celebrities for recommendations on what to buy or what to consume, but instead, they look to influencers, who live inside tiny rectangles they carry with them at all times and are thus constantly readily available. While they as fans have little influence, influencers have more - Broski has 7.4 million TikTok followers - and because of this, pressuring influencers to speak out can feel more realistic and achievable than even contacting their elected representatives.
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A left-wing content creator I follow, Madeline Pendleton, recently posted a video in which she shared a perspective on the question of how influencers use their platforms that I hadn’t considered. In the video, she explains that she had previously misunderstood people’s calls for influencers to speak out as calls for influencers to provide ongoing updates about what was happening in Gaza, which she found odd considering there are actual Palestinian journalists they could listen to.
Instead, she’s now realised that what fans are looking for is validation of their own perspective - the perspective that genocide is bad. “Just like I had grown up in a bubble and never met a Zionist in real life, other people grew up in bubbles where everyone around them is a Zionist. Where everybody around them is saying the same propaganda and misinformation from western powers that “it’s so complicated” and “you wouldn’t understand”.
So when these people go on the internet and ask their favourite content creators, “Can you talk about what’s happening here?” hearing somebody outside of their immediate bubble tell them, “No, you are not crazy, this is bad, this is a genocide… and you are correct to be horrified by genocide.”
As Pendleton explains, parasocial relationships play a role in this - people trust their favourite influencers to some degree, deservedly or not, and when the people in their lives have failed them and are telling them that the situation they can see unfolding is acceptable or worse, not happening the way they think it is, they turn to another trusted source. (Another angle, as many people in the comments pointed out, is that people want to know that their favourite content creators have values that align with their own; both so they know they aren’t supporting someone awful but also to assure themselves that their media consumption isn’t problematic.)
Which probably feels like a lot of pressure for someone who became famous for their hilarious facial expressions. And that’s partly why I personally am trying not to hold out hope that content creators and celebrities I like will all issue their own statements on the conflict - I’m not convinced any of them have anything illuminating to say.
Rather, I think the best thing they can do is use their platforms to amplify the voices of Palestinian activists and journalists; direct their fans to contact their elected officials demanding they join calls for a ceasefire; add their own names to the list of people calling for a ceasefire; and encourage their audiences to read widely and voraciously. Those are genuinely helpful ways to use your platform without running the risk of centring yourself or spreading misinformation.
I think it’s possible for multiple thoughts to exist concurrently: to think that people place too much stock in what influencers say and do while acknowledging the fact that this is just how our culture is in 2023, or to think that most influencers and celebrities have little of value to add while also acknowledging that many celebrities who’ve made statements in support of Palestine have done a surprisingly decent job.
Ultimately, the priority should be on making a ceasefire happen; influencers don’t need a PHD in Conflict Studies to add their voices to the growing chorus of people demanding their leaders work towards securing a ceasefire; the pressure has already worked on French President Emmanuel Macron, who also stated that he hoped other leaders, including President Biden, would join him in his calls for a ceasefire.
There’s only so much value you can get out of listening to what people like me and Brittany Broski have to say, which is why I urge you to follow Palestinians, both in Palestine and abroad, and listen to what they have to say.
Palestinian reporters doing fantastic work from Palestine include Plestia, Motaz, Rasha, Abod, Bayan, Hind, Refaat, Yara, Muhammad and Bisan. Palestinians in the diaspora worth following include Mohammed, Subhi, Chef Yaso, Nemahsis, Leen, Amal, Jennine, Fahad, Anat, Saeed and Conner, to name a few.
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To ensure you don’t get all of your information off social media, consider picking up a book. Good ones include The Hundred Years' War on Palestine, The Punishment of Gaza, Memory for Forgetfulness, Ten Myths About Israel, The Palestine Laboratory, anything by Norm Finkelstein, and, of course, Orientalism. If that’s not enough, you can check out these two lists for more recommendations.
Amnesty: Demand a ceasefire by all parties to end civilian suffering
Australia: Ceasefire now + contact your representatives
Canada: Ceasefire now + contact your representatives
Ceasefire Now: Open Call for an Immediate Ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and Israel
New Zealand: Call On the New Zealand Government To Demand an Immediate Ceasefire in Gaza
UK: Seek a ceasefire and to end Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip + contact your representatives
US: President Biden, call a ceasefire now + contact your representatives