What can money buy?

Depending on who you are asking, the answers vary:
Power, comfort, land .. maybe even a sprinkle of Fake News.

How about your influence? Is that for sale?

With the explosive rise of TikTok, it was only a matter of time until we started seeing videos such as the ones in this article by Vox.

Employees in the monster factory warehouses of Amazon are now using the social platform as a medium to showcase the dark side of getting your shipment in 2 days.

The state of constant surveillance, optimized algorithmic performance evaluations, and being a human robot are hallmarks of the job. More and more videos trickle onto social media uncovering the reality of modern commerce.

On the other side of the table, this must look like an onslaught of nightmare PR and press. How do you fight this fire that only seems to be growing and growing?

That would depend on the size of your treasury.

If you have a treasury the size of several countries cumulative GDP, you might as well fight fire with fire, change peoples’ perceptions and distort reality.

Influence.

The results:
Pay to get 5 star reviews with Amazon Vine program
Amazon Influencer program
Amazon Influencer army
Walmart is seeking to increase their stake in TikTok

An army of influencers fighting under the banner of the wronged and the oppressed.

Wait.. which side is the wronged one again? The Influencer Amnesia has struck, yet again.

This is a feedback loop running right in-front of us. The influencers posting rave tweets and posts are also the ones that are buying fake followers, upvotes and many more. The savage cycle only repeats itself and proliferates.

It seems like the industry is too far gone to revert. What is even more astounding is that buying influencers doesn’t just limit itself to PR and media. Every facet of the Internet is affected.

Influencers aren’t only working to improve companies’ reputations by tweeting or using TikTok. By now, it should come as no surprise that more than 40% (!) of the reviews you’re reading may have been manipulated and are unreliable. These types of campaigns are only growing with more reviews being written with the only intent to influence you and your buying decision. Without you even knowing it.

Try Fakespot today and spend less time reading and wondering if the reviews are real or not, download our Chrome extension or visit us at fakespot.com.