The dark side of influencer marketing

I'll never knock another person's source of income. It goes against my principle but my only caveat is that the person doesn't do harm or put other people's lives in peril.

Due to my time on Hive, I've encountered people from many countries and learnt about those places in the process. One country's people I see regularly around here is Venezuela, but considering they're so far away, I surprised to see the saddening news about what Nigerian influencers were doing on Twitter.

Venezuela, like Nigeria my country, is one suffering from an extreme level of corruption and to cap it off, hyperinflation. It is, by all means, a shit hole filled with corrupt politicians that want to steal public funds. I know this because the previous sentence also perfectly describes Nigeria.

One of the corrupt officials, Alex Saab, was trending on Twitter in Nigeria and some African countries recently. It turns out the guy paid popular figures on social media to talk about him and paint him in a good light.

For clarity, Alex Saab is currently detained somewhere in Cape Verde and is facing charges for money laundering through bank accounts established in Miami in 2017. I know he's guilty because he's a politician and as a rule of thumb, I assume all politicians are guilty.

The case to extradite him to the US where he can face a relatively fair trial compared to what he would get in Venezuela is still up in the air.

Due to the events unfolding within Africa, it seems like Alex paid some popular influencers in Africa, including 12 with millions of followers between them to pressure the court into releasing him for the notoriously corrupt Venezuelan judicial system.

Again, I know this because it is exactly the same with Nigeria and the only time corrupt Nigerian politicians go to jail is when they're prosecuted abroad.

This tale is only one in a long list of shitty activities that social media influencers participate in. These guys have grown posting tweets and shitpost into an impressive racket but the problem is that some of them have no soul.

As someone who has written content for numerous blogs to shill various projects, I understand how difficult it can be to reject the money thrown at you. However, I feel like every entrepreneur should draw a line on how low they're willing to go.

The dark side of influencer marketing

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