Merrian Webster defines ‘influencer’ as one who exerts influence or inspires or guides the actions of others. Social media influencers have a huge fan following these days running into millions. So naturally, they should not post anything that sounds tone-deaf as a majority of people are struggling in the pandemic.
But there are some influencers who did not restrain themselves from making insensitive remarks and posts during the pandemic.
1. Travel and fashion blogger Barbora Ondrackova posted a travel wrap 2020 video just before the new year.
The blogger and influencer who has over 552k followers on Instagram apparently visited 10 countries and 31 cities last year. She posted a ‘2020 wrap’ video on TikTok ahead of the new year showing places she visited and faced a backlash for bragging about it all.
2. This one influencer was pissed about the non-existent internet in Turtuk, Ladakh and whined about not being able to upload videos.
3. This influencer offered counselling sessions for ₹1500 despite not being a certified therapist.
4. Chrissy Teigen shared on Twitter that she and her husband were once duped into spending $13,000 on a bottle of Cabernet.
People were quick to point out how tone-deaf the tweet was at a time when many have lost their jobs due to the pandemic.
5. Charlotte Crosby joked about gaining weight in the lockdown and how it became her new lockdown hobby.
This did not go down well with the followers who thought it was insensitive.
6. This Instagram influencer received flak for a post asking people to not talk about the dead and appeals for injections and beds.
7. This Humans of Bombay post featuring Sanjana Sanghi and her domestic workers was called out for pure tokenism coming from a place of privilege.
8. The Love Island star, Laura Anderson, was called out for posting beach photos while claiming to be on business trips.
Talking about how the social media backlash impacted her, she broke down and said:
Some people don’t really understand Instagram but you have to constantly be engaging or your insights will go down and I can lose money and jobs. I’ll be honest, it’s a big part of my income. That’s just the way it is for me just now. I sort of have to please strangers to make an income… It was a really hard decision to go over.
Crying over losing followers and income, she said:
I’ve lost followers, I’ve lost jobs.
Can these “influencers” stop being so tone deaf? There are real issues in the world, too.