Meet the YouTubers Influencing — and Infiltrating — Politics
Social media isn’t just giving a voice to politicians. It’s creating entirely new ones.
It was the end of August 2017 when Elijah Daniel arrived in Hell, Michigan to be sworn in as mayor. The 23-year-old didn’t look the type to hold public office. He had a boyish haircut, tattoos on both arms, and was wearing a black Justin Bieber hoodie. And he wasn’t exactly elected. Instead, he’d come to this tiny town in central Michigan after hearing about a local tourist attraction that lets anyone pay $100 to become mayor for one day.
Daniel found the whole experience hilarious. He filmed his day in Hell for the YouTube channel he ran with his vlogging partner, Christine Sydelko. The tightly edited video was watched more than 800,000 times. For the international news outlets that covered the episode, it was a fun, clickbait story. But the YouTuber turned rapper and gay rights activist — who has since bought Hell and rebranded the town “Gay Hell” — was also making a serious point about politics. “If Donald Trump, a reality star, can be our president, there’s no reason why I can’t be a politician,” he tweeted.
Daniel’s stunt proved to be a precursor to a new global political trend. One year after Daniel became mayor of Hell, a Brazilian YouTuber…
