Regulating the Influencers
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This happened in 2025, but still I think it's worth discussing.
In late October 2025, the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) rolled out a striking new regulation: influencers on major Chinese social-media platforms who wish to comment publicly on “serious” topics — such as finance, law, education or health/medicine — will now be required to hold relevant credentials (degrees, licences or certifications) and to submit those credentials for verification by the platform.
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According to regulators, the goal is to curb the spread of misinformation, amateur “expertise”, unverified claims, and to protect audiences that may be highly vulnerable to poor advice.I haven't think through how a version of this may be made to work in the USA's tradition with its Constitution's First Amendment, but on the whole I sympathize that popular non-experts spouting misleading "advice" on social media can be a public nuisance and may be seriously deleterious to public health and public trust.
Thoughts?
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Not a bad idea. I wonder if many of the influenced would actually care.
Does a degree from Liberty count as a credential?
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Christopher Hitchens used to say “to whom would you give the power to decide what you’re not allowed to read?”
As 89 said next door, I prefer upvote/downvote, community notes, or some way to crowd-source commentary rather than outright censorship.
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I would too, although the popularity of internet celebs like Rogan makes me doubt the effectiveness of letting the people decide.
It’s the Wild West out there!
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I would too, although the popularity of internet celebs like Rogan makes me doubt the effectiveness of letting the people decide.
It’s the Wild West out there!
the popularity of internet celebs like Rogan
It’s the Wild West out there!It's getting impossible to know whom to trust.
Regarding Trump assassination attempts, specifically the WH Correspondents dinner incident. The last bit about trusting unverified information is most disturbing.
The NewsGuard survey found that 24 percent of U.S. adults believe the incident at the Washington Hilton was fake, compared with 45 percent who believed it was legitimate. An additional 32 percent said they were unsure. The survey of 1,000 American adults was conducted by YouGov from April 28 to May 4.
“It’s very striking,” said Sofia Rubinson, an editor at NewsGuard. The results underscore broader skepticism that Americans feel toward the government and the press, she said. “Increasingly, people on all sides of the political spectrum are distrustful of both this administration and also the media,” she said, but willing to trust unverified information they see online.
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Another angle: Credentials can be over rated. The list of experts who are nothing short of whacko is extensive.
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Christopher Hitchens used to say “to whom would you give the power to decide what you’re not allowed to read?”
As 89 said next door, I prefer upvote/downvote, community notes, or some way to crowd-source commentary rather than outright censorship.
Christopher Hitchens used to say “to whom would you give the power to decide what you’re not allowed to read?”
As 89 said next door, I prefer upvote/downvote, community notes, or some way to crowd-source commentary rather than outright censorship.
Intead of "censorship", call it consequences. Takes on a whole 'nuther source of responsibility...
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I know someone who has become an influencer in the financial sector. Neither he nor his partner have zero credentials. The recommendations they make are legal, but very risky. I don’t really understand all the ins and outs but it amounts to leveraging everything you have to take loans and then investing that money. There is a name for it that I have forgotten. Again all legal. But their audience is folks like me - teachers and other middle class professionals who are doing fine but definitely are not wealthy. They charge people for their “course” and consultation fees. They are in the camp of “don’t let those financial advisors take your hard earned money - we can teach you how to do it yourselves”. I don’t know what that looks like if people start defaulting on those loans.
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Influencers make videos like this, no?
Link to videoHow does a person do something like this?/ rhetorical
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The idea of "an influencer" is a really strange, foreign idea to me.
How would you even define it?
I'm showing my age.
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@daniel So I have an Instagram account dedicated to board games. Occasionally small board game companies send me games to play with the understanding that I’ll play the games and post about them. Because modern board games are a fairly niche hobby, it only takes a few thousand followers to become enough of an “influencer” for companies to partner with you. Larger accounts (many still under 10k followers but some of the super popular board gamers influencers that I follow have over 100k followers on instagram ) will be paid to make content about games, sometimes for social media or for Kickstarter campaigns. They get invited to try games before they are released and get lots of free product. And these folks definitely influence purchasing decisions amongst fellow board gamers so they are a huge part of a game company’s marketing budget. Every hobby has their own group of influencers. In niche hobbies they may only have a few thousand followers. But in areas like makeup and fashion they may have millions of views on TikTok. It’s a really bizarre landscape. There is a woman, I believe in China, who shows each product for 1-3 seconds before moving on to the next one. She’s a big deal - though I don’t really get why. But companies pay her to show their product, just for a moment.
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