Taylor Lorenz’s Power User - Inside the DNC’s influencer extravaganza, from yacht partying to meme lounge

Episode Date: August 22, 2024

This week, Taylor is in Chicago along with hundreds of content creators for the Democratic National Convention. YouTube star Keith Edwards gives the scoop on the Democrats’ influencer strategy, what it’s like inside a creator yacht party and VIP meme lounge, and how the 2024 election has become one big battle for the internet. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hi, I'm on the ground in Chicago for the Democratic National Convention. There are hundreds of content creators here, and today I'm talking to one of them. Keith Edwards is a prolific content creator, YouTube star, and Democratic strategist. Welcome back to the series where I show you all the completely insane things Donald Trump said at his rally that the media refuses to show you. Keith and I are going to break down what it's like for influencers at the DNC, the Dems creator strategy, how the media is changing, and whether or not this is the first influencer election. Keith, welcome to power user. Hi, Taylor. Thanks for having me. Okay, so both of us were at the United Center last night for night one of the Democratic Convention.

First of all, can you start off by it? Just tell us what the vibes were like. I think the vibes were a little chaotic. I don't know how many people are there. 30,000 people, 30,000 Democrats. So it's a logistical nightmare. And I do think they did the best they could. But the vibes of the logistics were quite challenging from an insider perspective. I don't think it at all. came across that way on television, which is the whole point of this thing. And also, I do think that the energy is just so high. Like, I was on the bus, the way back, and everyone's super hyped up. So that stuff aside, I think the vibes are exceptional at the DNC.

So you're one of these hundreds of content creators here to cover the election. This is the first time a major political convention has even credentialed content creators. Tell me a little bit about what being a Democratic content creator, influencer, YouTube star entails. And, and how you came about, you know, ending up at the DMC. I'll start with the second question first, which is I actually signed up before the Joe Biden Kamala switch happened. And I don't think they could give these passes away. So I was grateful to be accepted.

You know, I am a Democratic consultant and strategist. And I happen to do social because I think the best example you can give to clients is that you know how to do the work by doing it for yourself. and it has been a really interesting journey because I used to be called a Democratic strategist, and now I'm called an influencer. Yeah, and I feel like you're especially increasingly a YouTuber. I mean, your YouTube videos have just exploded an algorithm. So for people that aren't familiar with your work, can you give us a little bit of a flavor of what you're doing online?

Yeah, so I respond to the news as it happens. I like to give political analysis. Pete Buttigieg just gave a master class on Fox News on how to take their lies, throw it back at them and try to inform the audience of the truth. It was a sight to behold. It literally is going viral right now. So I wanted to show you this as soon as I saw it. YouTube has been a new thing for me. I had been on there for two months and I have 140,000 subscribers, which is crazy. A lot of it is clip-based. So I find a clip that is interesting. And then I surround it by analysis or commentary. And that's been just doing quite well for me.

Yeah. And what has the experience been like for content creators? Because I feel like it's been a little bit different compared to some journalists that I've talked to. You know, content creators, it sounds like we're treated to some yacht party. It's been very fun. There's been lots of programming for them. Whereas I feel like journalists are pretty much, it's like show up, get in line, write your story. You know, they're not necessarily throwing parties for us. So, you know, what's on the calendar for content creators this week?

Yeah, there was a yacht party, which I did not attend, but I'm told it was fun. And I believe there's a hotties for Harris party today. for creators. It's interesting. I think for me being a more of like a news political analysis creator, I don't think I necessarily need that to feel bought in. The fact that I'm here in a historic moment is enough. But I can understand if like there are influencers who are more used to, you know, politics is not for typical type of content. I think it makes sense to do something like that that makes it feel a little bit more bespoke. Yeah. Let's talk about how this program came together. So you applied, as you mentioned, before all of the craziness, the big switch.

Do you know anything about how they decided who to approve and what mix of creators to invite to this event? I don't know. I do know that there have been a lot of creators who did not get accepted. So it wasn't like, you know, whoever applied come on in. It was definitely, they were definitely very strategic about who they wanted to be here. I have no idea how that process went. I think it's amazing Hassan Pikers here, who is like not necessarily. I, okay, we have to discuss this because I would say the common theme of most of the content creators that I've spoken to and talked to is that they're very excited to be here. For most of them, it's their first convention and they're really just taking it all in. The content is very promotional.

It's very much like, you know, silly fun things. And look, I did that. I did a Snapchat show back in 2016 where I was interviewing people, you know, about their outfits, the different delegates, right? That's a good idea. But they seem very positive. You got to steal it. those people with the Texas light up hats last night. But, you know, I feel like there's certainly not a lot of content creators that are critical of the administration, the current administration,

or the Harris campaign generally. But when you walk to Media Row, you see Fox News has a giant space. The epoch times, a very well-known far-right disinformation outlet, you know, is still credentialed and actually has space on Media Row. So I guess, yeah, how do you think they're navigating that with creators. Because it seems to me they're kind of like, it's kind of unclear whether the creators are there, like, more marketing or press. Like, they want to treat them like press, their credentialed like press, but they're only credentialing friendly creators. Is that the case? Absolutely not. I mean, Hassan is a great example of that. Hassan is definitely team Kamala, team Tim Walls, at least that's what I've been gathering from his live streams. But he's also

been extremely critical of the Democrats and especially of Biden. And I think that is like the main difference between Democrats and Republicans is that we allow dissent. You know, we're not a cult of personality. You're allowed to have opinions, maybe really big opinions outside of the main Democratic messaging. And you're still allowed in here, you know, and I think that is something that we should really value, not only for the Democratic Party and hope that the Republican Party can get there again, too, because dissenting voices are really important when it comes to big

political parties. You have to know where the line is sometimes, you know, and I think that it is critical that people feel bought in, even if they're not towing the Democratic Party line every single day. To me, that is you're getting towards cult territory. So it's good that someone like this noncier. I think that the fact that they brought Hassan is so incredibly, I mean, when Hassan texted me yesterday and said that he was coming, he was like, we're just discussing credentials. And I was like, are you sure you have credentials? Like, are you sure? He was like, no, my man. company got it. And I was just shocked because I think no one has been more outspoken about the war. When you look at the content creator, you know, industry, just the stuff that's going on with Israel, Palestine, Hassan has been so incredibly vocal.

I was with him actually all yesterday earlier in the day at the protests. And he came straight from covering those protests speaking to, you know, the pro-Palestinian movements on the ground to being inside the DNC and covering it very well. And I wonder if there's a lot of creators outside of Hassan. I feel like Hassan is definitely opening the door. But aside from Hassan, you know, do you see a wide diversity of views or is it still pretty narrow? I mean, obviously, there's someone like me who is, I'm just, you know, I'm here to help Democrats win however I can. But I do think there are some folks here that their vote needs to be won. And I think that's important. Yeah, I noticed a lot of creators, too, that weren't necessarily overtly political in their content or maybe even, I mean, Tony P. I have ran into him yesterday, a famous DC influencer who has never overtly expressed support for the Democrats.

He said he finally came out and gave his endorsement online apparently yesterday. But they're more focused on issues or lifestyle things or they sort of speak to a specific democratic that the campaign really wants to target. It's interesting to see those people also get political. And just sort of in line with that, you know, as a contact creator, are there any sort of restrictions or guidelines on the type of content you can create? Are they giving you any sort of rules? Don't post this and that. You can only post here. Tell me what that's like.

Nothing like that at all. There's been absolutely no guidance. Nor should they. I mean, if they did that to a reporter, you know, imagine they did that to you, Taylor. Oh, please. I would say go fuck yourselves. Exactly. But it's interesting talking to some of the content creators because some of them wanted more guidance.

Like I think they're so used to getting these briefs from, you know, whether they're going on a trip or whether they're going on this. And I think a lot of them were quite shocked to have the amount of freedom that they have where it's just like, hey, show up, do what you do. You know, and we'll see. The Democrats have also set up this app called Greenfly, where content creators have access to real-time footage, information, you know, graphics, things that they can share. Yeah. Yeah. Which it really seems like they're trying to facilitate just content creation in all of its forms, which is something I don't think the Republicans had.

You know, the Republicans also brought 70 content creators, but as you mentioned, these are die-hard Republican lawyers. list. You know, they didn't have any sort of liberal contact creators at their event. You know, having all of these people here, so far, I don't think any huge gaps have happened. But is it also a liability for the Democrats? You know, what are they playing with fire here? And, you know, there are so many moments that can potentially go viral in a negative way for them. I mean, I saw one clip that was all over TikTok and Twitter and Instagram this morning of a delegate hitting a pro-Palestine, uncommitted delegate over the head with one of those. signs that the giant sticks. It's not a great look. Of course, it's not like a lawmaker was doing this,

but having all of these eyes on these little moments, those are things that maybe cable TV wouldn't have caught. So how much risk is there with this strategy? There's a bit of risk involved because some creators will do anything for clout. I think the DNC was probably really did a lot of due diligence to make sure that folks who came here didn't do content like that, gotcha content. There's always inherently risk. But that's a lot of, the same with like Fox News. You know, I mean, like, you can't control an outcome. I think we kind of have seen that if you try to get too controlling with the outcome, it actually has a negative effect anyway. So it's better to have folks show up, you know, give them a good experience.

And I do think that their vibes are great. So the content's going to reflect that, you know, but I do think that it is always inherently a little risky. It's also interesting to see the way that they set up areas to create content. They had this blue carpet. The creators could walk. They had the creator lounge. I went upstairs yesterday to the meme room, which was just this big room kind of outside the press and creator area

where they had food and snacks and you could sort of create content together. It was cool to see just the community that they were building as well, like among the content creators. They put all the creators in these big chats so they could connect with each other. And it seems like a lot of these creators are also building connections and collaborating with each other, creating this broader network that they can use for messaging. Yeah, I mean, there's a WhatsApp chat. And one thing about me is I'm really good at tweeting.

And so I have been flying off with some commentary in the WhatsApp chat. I've probably connected the people from there on Instagram who've added me saying, like, you know, you're so funny on the chat. I had to add you. So like it is creating like a, you know, like an ecosystem for us that maybe wouldn't have been there otherwise. It's been great. We'll be back with Keith Edwards talking more DNC drama after the break. There's been a lot of discourse in terms of, you know, the kinderous campaign leveraging the internet and being very online, right? It's just, even this is with the brat memes, the coconut stuff?

Is there worried that they're leaning too far into the meme culture? Like, where does the line draw between, I guess, leveraging the internet, owning the internet, and becoming kind of cringy? And is this something that they're aware of and working around addressing? Or do you think that they are not aware of these potential pitfalls? I think they're doing a great job. They're definitely aware of it. I think they're really towing the line because, as you know, meme culture starts from the bottom up. And as soon as someone like Kamala Harris were to say something coconut related, it would be over.

But I think it really goes to show that they've been really restrained about how they engage with the excitement and the content that's being created online for Kamala and for the campaign by kind of acknowledging it, but still in a lot. allowing it to kind of build on itself. There's no finer point than the fact that Kamala Harris has never really acknowledged any of that stuff happening on the stump or in an interview. I do think it is a campaign's job online to make sure that the base feels heard and respected. And in this sense, that is the meme. So it's good that they have like embraced it a bit. But I don't think they're owning it like they did with Dark Brandon. you know, Dark Branden became like a part of the campaign, you know, and in that way, I think that's a good lesson because it just killed that the engagement from normal folks.

Yeah. So Harris has not released many policies, but sort of assuming that she falls in line with a lot of Biden's stances on tech. I was at this contact creator event last week for, you know, a bunch of content creators at the White House. And they were talking to the content creators about legislation, things like the kids' online safety. Act or removing anonymity from the internet. These are actual policies that would devastate the content creator industry. And same with the TikTok ban, right? We know that over a third of Americans between the ages of 18 to 29 are getting their news on TikTok. A lot of these content creators at the DNC rely on TikTok for their livelihood. How do you think the content creator world will react once they start to realize the actual tech policies that might affect their direct livelihood

that Kamala might continue, you know? I mean, the beautiful thing about Kamala Harris's campaign is that it is an extension of Biden's successes, but it's also a new beginning. And so we don't know what those policies are going to be. And I hope we find out. It would be nice to know. You think she could reverse the TikTok ban somehow? I have no idea.

I have no idea. But she has shown that she is willing to be independent, especially around like she's been much more out there about the plight of the Palestinian people than Biden has been in the short four weeks, you know? So I just feel like I just want to give her space to surprise us. So it seems like they've got content creators in every single genre at this event. I mean, from like cooking people to just politics people to new, like literally name a genre and there is a creator in it at the DNC. What corners of the internet are they still struggling to win over? What content creators have they not reached? And how can they reach those corners online?

You know, that's a good question. I think very online men are hard for the campaign to reach in general, but especially in online spaces. That has been an area that Trump has, Trump and the right has done a really good job of capturing their attention of. I don't know what the solution for that is. But that's, again, like to bring it back to Hassan, who has a very, strong online. I think he's one of the only like, you know, like left. You think Hassan is going to like save the Democratic internet? I know he does have a very online. Yeah. I think I think he's a crucial linchpin. Yeah. Yeah. And so my hope would be, I would love for there to be 10 more Hassans because the right has 20 versions of him with four times the audience. You know, Wyer did that amazing kind of visualization of what influencers look like on the left. And I'll

the right and on the right it's all men and they have huge followings in comparison to the left. There's a lot of work to be done about building up the creator space and it's super important. It's the reason why the right has been able to capture so much young men, young white men is because of their investment in creators. This is like the beginning of the battle for the war of attention. This DNC is a great example that they are they understand that this is where like the puck is moving to. Yeah. I know.

I think it's just a lack of funding and it's difficult, right? The right as I wrote about extensively in my book, the entire right wing media ecosystem has always been very personality driven, even since the days of talk radio. They embraced blog culture, internet culture very early. These platforms are set up to incentivize extremist content, often right-wing extremist content. And they always treat. content creator people almost as legitimate media. Whereas even today, like, I mean, even in this event, right, we still have these traditional journalists snubbing their noses at independent media

or sort of like thinking of it as less than. And certainly independent media as in content creators on the left are not getting the big funding. I mean, maybe some of the centrist ones are, but the more progressive internet content creators, I mean, Hassan built himself up through Twitch. Like, he's not getting funded by Mark Andreessen. Like, there are no, uh, sort of progressive billionaires that are funding this, a progressive media ecosystem. And I think that's a, it's a challenge for them. But I will say this is just another example of how seriously they're taking it on media row, like you mentioned is Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, I think News Nation's there.

And so is Brian Tyler Cohen on that same row. Brian Tyler Cohen is one person with just along right there with a billion dollar media organizations who have been around for decades. So they understand. If I'm CNN, I would be worried because I'm like, wait, Brian's how, you know? Oh, yeah. So. I mean, you would think that these journalists would have some, like, they would wake up

and realize that, like, their world is crumbling and they live in an alternate reality. So when we talk about this battle for the internet, too, I think we have to look at the platform landscape on a whole, right? On that fantastic wired piece that McKenna Kelly did, you know, you saw, On the right, Elon Musk is huge. Elon's undeniably using X to try to swing the election for Trump, right? He's openly out there pushing stuff, the algorithm rewards that stuff. There's also this entire right-wing social media ecosystem, right?

You have platforms like Rumble, Truth Social, kick, you know, these live streaming apps, like all of these apps that are built to facilitate that stuff. Is there any equivalent on the left? No, but the way I kind of look at the internet, my kind of metaphor is like they used to call the liberal media, the liberal media. And I think to some extent that was actually true. I think most people are liberal. But I do think that when things and as things have gotten more online, conservatives because they weaponize outrage content, you know, they're very extreme. That's things that algorithms really reward. And so the internet, I think, is more like conservative media. And so it makes sense

that they're kind of winning that more. There aren't liberal spaces. But I think, that's because most media is inherently liberal because most people are inherently liberal. Okay, but if the old media is dying, it's going to be gone. Are we just going to all get our news from conservative spaces online? That seems like a bad situation. Because you have the mainstream platforms, the mainstream platforms increasingly restricting political content. I know it's awful. Meta, I mean, you know very well, right? What can tell us a little bit about what meta's been up to with politics, right? Yeah. So threads, which I'm on, I think I'm one of the biggest, political influences on threads and Instagram owned by Meta has made a decision to not amplify

political content, not even political content, political creators. So they basically shadow ban creators' account and only people who follow that account or people who have clicked a random setting and Instagram will be able to see deep in the settings. Deep in the settings, we'll be able to see political content. And I do think that it is an inherently political decision to do that. And I do think that when we are fighting this war, like you talked about, with conservative social media companies online, it's like we are kind of like fighting with just our fists when they have real weapons.

I don't know how to solve this. I don't know if it's like, I don't know, like maybe I'm crazy. Like could we actually come together? legislate a way to fix this. I don't know. I don't know what the solution is, but I don't think taking political speech and putting on the same level as misinformation is the way forward. I mean, look, misinformation is real, right? No one is saying that conspiracy theories are real here, but should the platforms be the ones just, you know, mitigating that? Because ultimately, they're going to abdicate that responsibility and they're simply just going to ban all content.

Of course, that's bad faith. But like you said, there has to be a better solution because we desperately need to protect our right to speech online and have places for free expression. I'm a huge fan of substack for this reason. Of course, there is tons of misinformation in some of those email newsletters, but at least it's not outright downranking and hiding people. Because as you said, restricting political content, and by the way, they define political content as anything touching any sort of social issue. So reproductive justice, influencers, you know, content creators about LGBTQ These are all deemed political. That in itself is a political action, and it's one that privileges the right, that benefits

the right, because the right-wing trad wives and stuff, they're not considered political. I think that the fact also that we have this tech duopoly of meta and Google is also going to be a challenge. Well, here's the thing, too, is like we can debate whether or not they do a great job, but food, people, you know, companies that make food have to make sure the food is edible and isn't going to kill you. And so I do think that... I don't know. Food's a good example because we have terrible food safety. Okay, I know it's not the best example.

But just let's try it. But there is an FDA. And I do think that it would be great if there was some sort of way that we could legislate companies who are like Facebook, meta, Twitter, that they have a responsibility to make sure that the content out there is not going to kill you. Yeah. I think not killing you, great. I'm very wary of any sort of government agency legislating anything around speech because of how wrong it can go, even just that determination not kill you. But yeah, we definitely need a better system. And I think we need more diversity of thought and discussion online. And it's very

hard in this age where, as you said, just political content is restricted. Meanwhile, we've got Elon Musk and all these platforms. So I just want to end it by giving some of our listeners a little bit of a landscape. You know, if they wanted to follow along, see some of the recaps of this DNC content. Who are some people to follow? I think you could follow me at Keith Edwards. Emily and your phone is a great, she's been doing some great content on Instagram. I saw her last night.

Yeah. Oh, you saw her? Yeah. They were showing up side of the DNC that don't think people would see otherwise. Like, they went and showed one of the phones you have to use to, like, send up your votes for the delegates. So it's an interesting look inside. I think those are some good content creators to follow along with. Yeah, there's also a lot of content creators covering the protests here.

And I think that's an interesting dynamic, too. You've got the content creators on the inside, those people that you just mentioned. And then there's tons of content creators on the outside. Ariana Afshar, who is a Twitch political content creator, news streamer. She just announced that she's flying to cover an interview a bunch of these pro-Kalestine protesters. So I feel like no matter what kind of content you're looking for related to or around the DNC, there is a content creator covering it. Absolutely.

All right, Keith, well, thank you so much for chatting with me today. Thanks for having me. It's been great. All right, that's the show. You can watch full episodes of Power User on my YouTube channel at Taylor Lorenz. Power User is produced by Travis Larcichick and Jalani Carter. Our video producer is Brandon Kiefer. Our executive producers are Zach, Mack, and Nashat Kerwa. Power User is part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.

If you like our show, give us a rating and review on Apple Podcast, Spotify, or wherever you listen. We'll be back next week with a brand new. episode of Power User.