Social Democrats deny paying influencers for election content

The Social Democrats do not pay digital creators for political collaborations, party secretary Tobias Baudin told SVT, rejecting speculation sparked by a video featuring party leader Magdalena Andersson and influencers Alice Stenlöf and Klara Elvgren.

In the short Instagram video, Andersson says early voting has begun and asks viewers to vote. Stenlöf responds that they should do the same.

The video prompted questions about whether the influencers had been paid by the Social Democrats. The speculation followed claims by influencer Eleonore Stokholm, who has more than 50,000 Instagram followers, that she had been offered 150,000 kronor for a post explaining why people should vote for the party.

Stokholm declined the offer. She told SVT that, after seeing the video, she wondered how much the two influencers had been paid because she herself had been offered a six figure sum.

According to Stokholm, the offer came in April from someone who said they worked with influencers. They spoke by telephone, and she never had direct contact with anyone from the Social Democrats.

SVT spoke to the person who contacted Stokholm, who said the matter was a misunderstanding. The person said there had been no concrete offer, only a discussion about whether Stokholm might be interested in political content collaborations if such an opportunity arose during the election year.

Baudin said the Social Democrats never pay digital creators. Anyone appearing in party related content does so voluntarily, he said.

Asked whether he could guarantee that, Baudin replied yes, saying the party does not pay for collaborations with creators.

The post about the alleged offer has been widely shared on social media. Several politicians, including Minister for International Development Cooperation Benjamin Dousa of the Moderate Party, have also shared it.

Baudin said it was damaging that ministers were spreading what he described as disinformation that was not true.