An army of influencers for Biden. Beijing and TikTok, mask off. Catch and kill. Tories taught by the Republicans. Musk against everyone.

An army of influencers for Biden

From Harry Sisson, a 20-year-old New York University student who analyzes the news of the day on TikTok, to Boston College professor Heather Cox Richardson, who has a large following on both Substack and on Twitter, to Vivian Tu, a former trader who discusses financial topics in short clips on TikTok and Instagram. There Biden’s campaign digital strategy would point, second Axiosto recruit an army of independent influencers and creators to reach younger voters, who are key in his election. Precisely the latter (ages 18-29) in 2020 preferred Biden to Trump with a margin of 26 points, and in mid-term (2022) the Democrats to the Republicans with a margin of 28 points. There is just one small detail that should not be overlooked: the strategy of the President of the United States is aimed more at the platforms preferred by younger voters such as TikTok, exactly that Chinese social network that ended up in Washington’s sights for data security implications. But, as the Wall Street Journal (owned by Murdoch) had already pointed out, the White House tenant needs them to potentially counter former President Trump’s massive social media following. Through these figures he wants to reach those who don’t follow the Democratic Party on social media or who are far from mainstream media. Rob Flaherty, at the head of the operation, has been appointed assistant to the President (same rank as the White House Communications Officer). Furthermore, Biden, when he travels, would like to be followed by influencers who have a strong following in the place he travels. That’s not an easy strategy to pull off, especially when its current rival enjoys a vastly superior social media following despite being kicked off Facebook and Twitter. One of the first steps could be the creation of a space inside the White House dedicated to the influencers involved.

Beijing and TikTok, mask off

While TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew was on Capitol Hill trying to convince the United States of his app’s safety, the Chinese propaganda machine has made a series of criticisms of the American system. The New York Times tells the survey by the non-profit organization Alliance for Securing Democracy, according to which the tweets of Chinese government officials in those days (about 200) were higher than those published in the first two months of the year (about 150), while the word “China” was used 50% less than “the United States”. On Twitter, Americans have been described as “old tech illiterates,” “out of control, paranoid, and self-righteous,” and American lawmakers “xenophobic.” Although the company has explained that it is not subject to the Chinese government, Beijing’s media campaign has shown how much China (which has taken the opportunity to denigrate the entire American political system) is involved in its destiny. As the Alliance for Securing Democracy has pointed out, in the presence of sensitive issues involving autocratic actors, even in open and democratic information spaces it is already particularly complex distinguish between organic content and content resulting from autocratic propaganda. Many shadows remain on the Chinese app, also due to the evasiveness shown by Chew in the face of Congressional questions relating to the protection of personal data.

Catch and kill

David Pecker will be called to the witness stand in Donald Trump’s trial. The friendship between the former owner of American Media Inc (the company of several tabloids including the National Enquirer) and the former US president has lasted a long time as the Financial Times. Since 1999, when Pecker bought AMI and Trump was an entrepreneur already well known to the tabloids. The National Enquirer gave Trump extensive coverage, but with Pecker on his side, the favors intensified to such an extent that when the tycoon set his sights on the White House, he was able to count on unprecedented media attention. As the Enquirer soared sales, all potentially compromising Trump stories were covered up and those of his rivals highlighted: the so-called strategy of “catch and kill”, or identify and hide negative information about him and increase electoral prospects, as recently stated by Pecker himself. During the 2016 election campaign, AMI paid former Playboy model Karen McDougal $150,000 for the rights to her story about her relationship with Trump, and made sure it was never published. The company reached a similar settlement with Stormy Daniels, the porn film actress who also claimed to have been in a sexual relationship with Trump. And she paid $30,000 to a former Trump Tower janitor who claimed to have information about a child Trump had had out of wedlock, a false story, but a cover-up nonetheless. Last week the foundations of the long bond of favors and interests collapsed

: Pecker emerged as a star witness in the indictment of Trump and was granted immunity from federal prosecutors in 2018 for admitting his company made illegal payments to influence the 2016 election. In his run for the next election, Trump he will therefore no longer be able to count on the help of the tabloid press.

Tories taught by the Republicans

The communication and media strategy of the Tories looks more and more to the American Republicans. This is the thesis supported by Will Hutton, commentator of The Observer. In view of the upcoming elections, he explains, among other things the British Conservatives are making sure that every key role in the BBC and in Ofcom – as in any regulatory or cultural institution – is awarded to party members or sympathizers. The party is also making use of intellectuals like Matthew Goodwin, who talk about aliberal elite composed by, among others, the popular actress Emma Watson, which would keep Britain at its mercy. Transformed from a legal scholar to a supporter of the right, Goodwin’s task would be “to throw a smokescreen around what is actually happening”. Hutton later endorses Labor leader Keir Starmer, whose election would end the coup. Beyond the endorsement, however, there is also a political communication problem: It is clear that the British liberals need figures of the right caliber to pit against opponents who, before even starting to try to take control of the media, have managed to intercept the electorate.

Musk against everyone

Elon Musk’s social media platform is violating its own policies aimed at limiting the visibility of Chinese and Russian state-controlled media. Since 2020, Twitter has begun to adopt some measures aimed specifically at the official accounts of governments and state-controlled media: from the label to recognize them to prevent them from appearing in search results, up to flagging tweets that contain links to controlled sites by government such as RT.com or the Global Times. Semafor recently conducted a test, finding that the platform does not fully enforce these measures. To complete the picture, Voice of America reporter Wenhao Ma discovered that the platform had also started automatically recommending Chinese government-backed content to users through its algorithmically powered “For You” page. In keeping with its recent communication style, Twitter, which has eliminated its communication team, responded to an email request for comment with a feces emoji (its classic automatic reply). Following the purchase by Musk, many experts wondered how it would treat accounts associated with the Chinese government given that Tesla has significant business interests with Beijing

. Regardless of his intentions, it is clear that China is more present than pre-Musk, a situation which makes the move, much discussed and subsequently “resolved”, toNational Public Radio (NPR) as a “state” even more curious affiliated media”. It is also true that such moves are not an anomaly in the business world, there are many companies (such as Disney) trying to meet Chinese needs. The decision to ease the measures aimed at China and Russia could be part of an overall company strategy. Or, alternatively, one could consider the fact that the cutting of numerous engineers has caused technical problems in applying these measures. At the same time, the Texan billionaire is preparing to face a difficult audience at the conference of the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA), a major trade association: several Marketing Directors fear that “Musk’s comments about race and the platform’s openness to racist speech have rendered Twitter toxic.”

*Storyword is an editorial project by a group of young communication professionals who, with different skills and points of view, want to tell the globalized and constantly evolving world of communication due to the convergence with digital. Storyword is not a simple press review: every week it provides a reasoned summary of the most significant contents that have appeared in the national and international media relating to communication techniques and targets, emphasizing objectives and background. For more information: www.storywordproject.com