THEY APPEARED from nothing, taking over our social media feeds, marching forward like mindless zombies, but much more attractive, with their advice on Bitcoin, which restaurants to be seen at, and the best choice of nappies for newborns and, on rare occasions, a hashtag that admitted they were paid for their wisdom.
Why were they paid for their wisdom was puzzling as often someone else wrote their material and Bitcoin was a dubious investment?
There was no Kryptonite to stop them except perhaps tinned instant coffee until our heroes rode over the rise, the Government Bureaucrats and tax officials.
Influencers in Australia are going to be investigated by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission to make sure that they disclose they are being paid by the brands they are promoting, and that endorsements and testimonials are not misleading.
Not revealing that she was paid for a cryptocurrency promotion cost Kim over a million dollars although her role as an influencer has made her very wealthy.
The Australian tax department has announced that influencers who make money from their posts are required to pay tax, yes tax, like everyone else. These two actions of having to be honest and pay your dues may send many of them out to look for real work or it would if social media wasn’t their whole world.
It is a start, but it is happening in many countries and with a global effort social mMedia can return to what it was designed for, funny cat videos and photos of family members.
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Consider the individual
Marie Presley has died at the too young age of 54. She was an accomplished musician with gold records to her name, but every news report on TV and in the papers will mention her father when this should be about her.
People should be valued for what they do, not who their parents were or who they married, especially in this case.
This notion applies to everyone although papers make too much of the family connections as has also happened recently with Harry and Meghan.
There is the saying that we should speak well of the dead and we should, but we should speak of them and them only.
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Letter to the editor
Most times when you see four masked men carrying away a young woman you would ring the police, but this time it was the police doing the carrying and they were riot police.
Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg and others, who were not so newsworthy, were taken away when they were protesting outside the German village of Lützerath.
The destruction of a village where people had lived their whole lives in order to build a big hole in the ground, actually a coal pit mine, seems sad as well as being environmental vandalism.
Maybe rather than “bravely” carrying away a little girl they should listen to her because it appears few people are really aware of the dangers and destruction that the search for non-renewable energy sources bring.
Let’s be brave enough to accept that there is climate change and damage to the environment, and try to find solutions. (dfitzger@melbpc.org.au)/PN
