Over the last several months, a new generation of YouTube growth-hackers have flooded American politics, reaching millions of viewers with nearly identical, sensationalized videos taking aim at Democrats, Semafor’s Max Tani reports.
The videos are presented as laypeople giving straight-to-camera ideological news recaps, but they feature actors paid to read nearly identical scripts laced with misleading claims and outright falsehoods about progressives like New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, California Gov. Gavin Newsom, and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker.
Their viewers either haven’t noticed or don’t mind: A single network of interconnected videos affiliated with a growth-hacking company whose founder promises to be the “strongest alternative to paid ads” has garnered well over 45 million views and 90,000 comments on YouTube, plus millions more impressions across social platforms like TikTok. And without “systemic change from all platforms,” the problem looks to get worse, a Newsom spokesman said.
Read the full story in Semafor Media: https://ift.tt/yi1YBxa
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