‘I Have to be More Careful’: Social Media Influencers in the Philippines and the Profilicity of Politics on Online Spaces

Scholars and activists have established that social media platforms are viable spaces for political discourse and activism. This paper examines the ways in which people navigate ‘being politically aware’ in online spaces by examining social media influencers in the Philippines as empirical entry points and building on studies on influencer studies and online social movements studies. This paper is part of a larger PhD project on influencer cultures in the Philippines, culling data from digital ethnography and semi-structured interviews with 30 social media influencers and 30 audiences. Informed by the concept of profilicity which looks at personas as profiles that are packaged online (Moeller and D’Ambrosio 2018), this paper explores how influencers balance their work as influencers and the ethics of being socially and politically aware on social media, particularly on TikTok and Facebook. The paper argues that while audiences expect social media influencers to become more vocal in social and political issues, they understand they are bound by limits from brands and their endeavors. This balancing act maintains their status as influencers and thus allows people to trust them as public figures. Ultimately, social media influencers are nuanced beings with varying degrees of openness which impacts discourses online in that while social media affords political awareness, it is ultimately the negotiation between the personal, social, and economic aspects, that affects how influencers become more vocal on social issues online.