The AIM Parent’s Guide to Influencers

September 16, 2022

By Ella Carroll-Smith

Children today are spending more time on social media than ever before. Recent studies have found that tweens spend more than five hours per day on social media, while teens spend more than eight hours on apps like TikTok, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube.

Parents are probably wondering what their kids could possibly be watching that could take up so much time. The answer? A lot of leftist propaganda. There are many celebrities and influencers who target their young audiences and promote dangerously misleading information. Here are some of the worst offenders:

Olivia Rodrigo first came into the limelight as a Disney star, but has since transitioned into music with songs like “Drivers License,” which topped Billboard charts and currently has over 400 million views on YouTube. During the coronavirus pandemic, she delved into politics with a visit to the White House to meet with Joe Biden and Dr. Anthony Fauci to urge young people to get vaccinated. All this in spite of the fact that young people are in the lowest risk category for COVID-19 and the vaccines had not yet been approved for younger children. 

In the wake of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, Rodrigo spoke out in front of thousands of fans at one of her concerts, saying, “I wanted to dedicate this next song to the five members of the Supreme Court who have showed us that at the end of the day, they truly don’t give a s*** about freedom. The song is for the justices: Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Amy Coney Barrett, Brett Kavanaugh. We hate you! We hate you.”

Of course, it’s not just the mega-influencers like Rodrigo on TikTok. Several creators with huge influence within the app but less visibility in pop culture have the perfect platform to mislead their followers.

Salem Ilese is a popular influencer on TikTok, with over 3.8 million followers on the platform. She’s perhaps best known for her hit song “mad at disney” which has over 30 million views on YouTube. Like Rodrigo, Ilese has a strong opinion on the Supreme Court and even uses her TikTok bio to declare that she’s “mad @ disney, PS5, and SCOTUS.” Following the overturning of Roe v. Wade, Ilese posted a video called “mad @SCOTUS” where she sings about how SCOTUS took women’s reproductive rights away and protects guns not people. The video has over 250,000 likes.

Nicol Concilio posts a wide array of content on TikTok, from travel vlogs to product reviews to makeup tutorials and “get ready with me” videos. She also uses her “fun” videos to slip in her pro-abortion views. One of her 337,000+ followers might click on this video of hers, thinking it’s a harmless makeup tutorial, only to be lectured to about how “abortion is healthcare.”

Tara Bellerose is a “nature educator” who uses TikTok to spread hysterical climate alarmism to her 704,000 followers. In one video, she claims that if we don’t take action to save the climate, wildlife could be a “distant memory” by the year 2050. The video has over 770,000 likes. 

Jordyn Kost is a popular makeup influencer on TitTok, with over 97,000 followers. While her typical videos involve makeup tutorials and product reviews, she’s also popular for her “storytime” videos where she’ll often talk about politics while she puts on makeup. She’s extremely left-wing and progressive and often compains about women having their abortion rights taken away

Influencers like Ilese, Rodrigo, and Kost conveniently overlook the fact that the Supreme Court did not take abortion rights away; they simply restored decision-making power to the states. Rather than present their large followings with accurate information, these influencers instead peddle blatant misinformation to millions of young and impressionable kids.

 

YOUR SUPPORT WILL HOLD THE MEDIA ACCOUNTABLE.

Accuracy in Media uses investigative journalism and citizen activism to expose media bias, corruption and public policy failings. Progressives and their allies in the newsroom have a stronghold over the mainstream media in this country, but they aren’t stopping there.

They are targeting our education system, Big Tech, the entertainment industry — every facet of America’s culture.

To fight back against the overbearing control they have of our society, you and I must take action now.
Join us in this fight by taking the pledge below and signing your name.

  • I pledge to do my part in holding journalists accountable.
  • I pledge to support freedom of speech whenever views are silenced.
  • I pledge to uphold the values of a well-informed free society.

Pledge Now

Your Name:(Required)
This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.