Have you ever seen videos on TikTok or Instagram about people giving out free food or donating money to those in need? Most of these videos are probably fake. Social media platforms are a big source of income; the more followers you have, the more money you get. By acting like a kind person, these influencers will gain more followers. They can get rich by acting as kind as they can, even if they don’t act like that in real life. These influencers may seem like saints, but in reality, they couldn’t care less.

That’s because influencers are hypocrites.

Influencers only care about trends

As everyone knows, the Russia-Ukraine war started in 2020. It spread all over the news. On TikTok, waves of influencers said that they would do anything to help Ukraine. They raised money for donations, started boycotts, and cried on camera. Some even said that they would never stop speaking up for Ukraine until the war was over.

The majority of these people did not keep their promises. There are barely any videos about Russia and Ukraine anymore. When you search “Ukraine” or “Russia” on TikTok, 90 percent of the videos aren’t from this year, with many of them being made back in 2020 or 2021.

This year, when the Israel-Palestine war broke out, many influencers started boycotts and donation drives, saying that they would help and support Israel or Palestine forever. However, there are fewer videos made about the war as time goes on, and the people who promised to help until the war ends are also becoming less and less vocal. Even on Oscar night, famous singer Billie Eilish wore a red pin symbolizing support for Palestine. But she took it off right before her performance and was even seen buying a cup of coffee in Starbucks, one of the main targets for the Palestinian boycott, a few hours later.

Maybe I’m wrong, but am I seeing a pattern here?

Hypocritical behavior

Many influencers lie to the camera or claim one thing on social media but then behave differently than how they have promised. Faking donations, faking a vegan diet, and faking a lifestyle are common among influencers.

One example is Yovana Mendoza. She was an influencer on TikTok who was known for promoting a vegan lifestyle. She even became quite famous, offering vegan diet programs. As it turns out, she wasn’t even sticking to the lifestyle she advertised. One of her followers uploaded a video of her eating fish online. Yovana later explained that she found out a vegan diet was unhealthy for her body, so that’s why she stopped.

Another example is Kayla Massa. She was an influencer on TikTok who had over 33,000 followers. She often posted pictures of her holding stacks of cash and screenshots of her bank account. Being rich, she told her fans that she could make them rich too if they gave her access to their bank account for a short amount of time. The victims would mail their personal information such as their personal identification number (PIN). Then she would transfer money to her bank account with the help of her accomplice.

Fake followers

Influencers having fake followers isn’t breaking news. Everyone knows that influencers buy followers to make themselves seem more popular than they actually are.

According to Fasthosts, the top influencer that buys followers is, unsurprisingly, Kylie Jenner. Being a famous model with a net worth of a jarring 900 million dollars, her buying followers only have one purpose — to gain more wealth. Forty percent of her followers are fake, and she has about 400 million followers. If we do some math, we know that she bought 160 million followers. That’s eight times the size of Taiwan.

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Social media influencers are fake and unworthy of the praise and love they receive. They follow trends to gain popularity rather than genuinely caring about the issues they post about. They also purchase millions of fake followers just to make themselves more popular than they already are. Some even brag about their follower count when they know they bought many of them. Don’t trust the influencers you see on social media. They are hypocrites.