TikTok news creator Aaron Parnas is responding to journalist Taylor Lorenz‘s Wired story.
If you didn’t see, there has been a lot of discourse about the article, titled, “A Dark Money Group Is Secretly Funding High-Profile Democratic Influencers.”
She alleged in the article, “An initiative aimed at boosting Democrats online offers influencers up to $8,000 a month to push the party line. All they have to do is keep it secret—and agree to restrictions on their content.”
One of the creators mentioned in the text is Aaron, who is known for his “breaking news” TikToks. He currently has over 4 million followers on the app.
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Aaron responded on Instagram, “I need to take a minute and debunk some important misinformation. Many of you have commented about this article that came out…asking if I’ve sold out, if I’ve taken money to push political talking points. The answer is no. Number one, this group never paid me for any content. This group never had control over any of my content. They never told me who to interview, what to say, or what not to say. They never once said you can’t report on an issue. This group is a public cohort. Nothing was secret. And the point of it was to mentor smaller creators so that they can grow and that they can monetize their platform.”
He continued, “And just like I’ve given speeches in the past or I’ve mentored other creators in the past, this was no different. This had nothing to do with politics, had nothing to do with a political party, and had no control over the content that I ever made. And even the article writer, Taylor Lorenz, admits that.”
He added, “She talks about disclosure requirements, but there was no payment for content. And so there was nothing to disclose. What this article is advocating for is that any of you have to disclose where you work, what you do for a living, how much you make, and who your CEO is. That means I have to disclose that a bar prep company has paid me to help grade bar exam essays. But I want to make clear that if there was ever a situation where a quote-unquote dark money group tried to pay me to push a narrative. I’d say absolutely not.”
And he concluded, “But that hasn’t stopped this online firing squad from emerging. And it’s funny, the people that are attacking me online are traditional journalists who are threatened by the work that I do, and also bad faith actors who have spent their entire last two years that I’ve been on this platform attacking me. So I’m not going to stop. And I want you to know that if you have any questions, comment them below. I’ll answer all of them.”
Source: justjared.com