New Delhi: Influencers are one of the pillars of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s media-savvy administration — from a Signal group created to feed them talking points to pilot programmes designed to harness their reach on TikTok and Instagram.
The findings come from a Columbia Journalism Review (CJR) investigation into Mamdani’s growing creator ecosystem. In an article published on 31 August, it said the group has more than 200 influencers, “ranging from micro-influencers with five thousand to ten thousand followers to some with millions of followers.” A more detailed report will be released later.
What CJR unearthed is a fairly elaborate system, in which creators are given access to officials, advance information, and material to use in posts, while some have also been paid by city agencies for specific campaigns.
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How the Mamdani creator ecosystem works
To zero in on the influencer network, CJR compiled a list of 189 creators with ties to the Mamdani administration. It identified attendees at a January press briefing using reverse image searches, then added other creators based on posting patterns, press coverage, and publicly available city contracts.
The Signal group itself grew out of Creators4Zohran, the influencer network that supported Mamdani during last year’s mayoral campaign.
The set of influencers is rather like a press list, but with an important difference.
“These influencers have been criticized for not asking adversarial questions or doing tough investigative reporting,” CJR said.
Among them is Sari Beth Rosenberg, a public school US history teacher who also works as a digital content strategist for the American Federation of Teachers. She has around 4.5 lakh followers across several platforms. Rosenberg told CJR that she sees herself as filling a gap left by the hollowing-out of local news, reaching people who may not otherwise seek out information about New York City.
Another is Nile Berry, a 34-year-old creator who posts about economics and real estate and has had direct access to Mamdani. He posted about meeting the mayor to discuss housing in the city, but told the New York Post that he was not a “mindless Mamdani booster”.
Is it all lawful?
The influencer network may be running afoul of local record-keeping laws, according to the New York Post, particularly because official communications are taking place on the encrypted Signal group.
Citizens Union Executive Director Grace Rauh told the newspaper that there was nothing wrong with City Hall working with influencers, but “the problem is that the city has been doing this privately”. She also raised questions over disclosure: “We do not know who is getting paid and who is not.”
CJR found that influencers in the Signal group are not paid by the city for their coverage, although some receive payment from city agencies for particular messaging campaigns. It also found that taxpayer money is being spent on influencer campaigns, even as the identities of the creators receiving it are often not publicly disclosed.
The mayor’s office told the Post that it had never paid a content creator for collaboration or content production. The newspaper, however, said its review of active contracts found that the Department of Social Services had shelled out more than $100,000 this year on an unspecified social media campaign.
Mamdani addressed the controversy on Wednesday, saying his administration had a responsibility to communicate with New Yorkers through television, radio, social media and content creators.
“My administration will always strive to fully comply with all legal requirements, including those that relate to the preservation of city records. And if there are any departures from what is legally required, my administration will look into it immediately and take corrective action,” he said.
(Edited by Asavari Singh)