California AG Rob Bonta probing influencer interference in governor battle

California Attorney General Rob Bonta is “looking into” a barrage of complaints about governor candidates paying influencers for endorsements without those internet personalities disclosing they were paid.

“Unlike any complaint, we’ll review it to determine what role we have and what we should be doing and if we should be taking action,” Bonta said during an interview with KCRA 3 News.

While he did note his office was looking into it, he said the complaints fall under the purview of the California Fair Political Practices Commission.

“This is what they do — in campaigns and for political expenditures — they make sure that all the rules are being followed, disclosures are made, reporting is done right and accurately. So I think that they have the lead role here,” he added.

The FPPC is an independent California agency that enforces campaign finance, lobbying, and ethics laws. Created by voters in 1974 through the Political Reform Act, it promotes transparency, fair decision-making, and public trust in government.

Bonta’s comments come after California gubernatorial candidates, particularly Tom Steyer, came under fire for paying a growing list of influencers and meme accounts, revealed in campaign filings, as critics accuse the 68-year-old political hopeful of trying to hoodwink voters.

FPPC has launched a probe into Steyer’s hefty spending on a small army of Gen Z creators, some of whom allegedly did not disclose they were being paid by the hedge fund billionaire and later deleted the deceptive posts.

According to a campaign memo obtained by the Sacramento Bee, Steyer’s team approached additional content creators with offers of $10 per video, with promises of additional bonuses tied to view counts.

“Many voters are critical of Tom Steyer because of his billionaire status, lack of experience and previous investments.

“Rather than pretending that these things don’t exist, acknowledge and relate to voters’ concerns and explain why you still believe Steyer is the strongest candidate despite them,” the memo states.

Creators were reportedly instructed to post three to four videos per week focused on issues aligned with Steyer’s platform — including taxing the rich, abolishing ICE, climate change, regulating artificial intelligence, and reducing corporate influence in politics — while avoiding direct mentions of Steyer or the governor’s race in order to maintain a more “casual” and “relatable” appearance.

California law adopted in 2023 requires online creators who are paid to support or oppose political candidates to disclose that relationship in their posts.

Steyer defended the controversial use of paid social media influencers after state election regulators opened an investigation into whether online creators failed to properly disclose sponsored political content.

Kevin Liao, a spokesperson for the Steyer campaign, pushed back against the allegations in a statement to The California Post.

“Consistent with state law, payments for creator content are disclosed in campaign finance reports, and we notify creators we directly work with of their disclosure requirements. As a result, we are confident the complaint is baseless,” he said.

“Creators make their living generating content. The campaign believes in compensating people for their time and work product and has paid creators to generate content,” he added.

Some influencers who declined the offers criticized the outreach strategy as exploitative.

“As a professional in social media, I am seeing a lot of videos using almost word-for-word scripts about candidates that are not disclosing they are paid ads,” Serabeth Mullaney, a San Francisco-based brand and community lead who posts under the handle @synapticglories, told the Bee.

Mullaney said she declined an offer from SideShift to produce videos for the Steyer campaign, calling the tactic “predatory” and arguing it targets creators who are desperate for income.

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