A TikTok star provided insight into the White House meeting with influencers over the crisis in Ukraine, suggesting they were used as “pawns.”
Last month, The Washington Post reported National Security Council staffers and White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki briefed 30 top TikTok stars about the war in Ukraine.
The Post noted millions have turned to the social media platform for information on the crisis.
The outlet explained, “The White House has been closely watching TikTok’s rise as a dominant news source, leading to its decision to approach a select group of the platform’s most influential names.”
Kahlil Greene, also known as Gen Z Historian on TikTok, penned a piece for Newsweek sharing his perspective of what went on during the meeting.
Greene noted most of the influencers were “political commentators of some sort” but after the meeting he felt their recaps “were not critical.”
He explained, “They seemed to repeat exactly what the White House was saying.”
Greene continued, “When I saw a lot of the conservative fallout from the event, saying that people were being used as pawns by the White House, it was hard to argue against that when the information being repeated about the session is just what we were told verbatim, without criticism.”
The TikTok star argued the lack of critical thinking “delegitimizes people’s trust in our ability as TikTokers to be critical thinkers.”
Additionally, Greene commented on conspiracy theories that emerged surrounding the role influencers played in spreading information.
“The most common conspiracy has been that we were being brainwashed into warmongering on behalf of the Biden administration and their political interests,” Greene wrote.
He added, “Whenever I tried to respond that we weren’t being controlled and had agency over how we reported on the event, these skeptics would respond, ‘That’s exactly what someone brainwashed would say.'”
According to the Post, Greene has more than 534,000 followers on TikTok.
