The Texas Ethics Commission will now require social media influencers to disclose when their content is a paid political advertisement. The state’s campaign finance watchdog agency voted 7-0 earlier this week to approve the rule, which was first proposed in March.
The move comes The Texas Tribune reported that a company recruited social media stars to defend Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton ahead of his 2023 impeachment trial. Matthew Watkins, managing editor for news and politics at The Texas Tribune, said the company, called Influenceable, was hiring Gen-Z influencers to post content in favor of Paxton.
“You know, attacking the House members who had been involved in the impeachment and overall just urging the Senate to acquit him,” Watkins said. “This was silently paid for by some right-wing activists and big-money people in Texas. Those influencers did not disclose that they were getting paid.”
While the Texas Ethics Commission did not mention Influencebale by name in the decision, they did previously mention “at least one business” that was paying social media users for political messaging while considering the rule.
However, it remains to be seen what effect the rule will have, practically speaking.
“One of the things they’ve talked about is it’ll be pretty hard to enforce, right? You have to be able to prove that you’re getting that money,” Watkins said. “It’s not like a TV ad where it’s very clearly advertising. How do you find out whether anyone’s getting money to send a tweet or an Instagram post?”
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