{"id":1041615,"date":"2026-09-03T22:10:19","date_gmt":"2026-09-03T22:10:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1041615\/"},"modified":"2026-09-03T22:10:19","modified_gmt":"2026-09-03T22:10:19","slug":"council-to-question-city-halls-links-to-online-influencers-use-of-encrypted-messaging-apps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1041615\/","title":{"rendered":"Council to question City Hall’s links to online influencers, use of encrypted messaging apps"},"content":{"rendered":"

The City Council\u2019s Committee on Governmental Operations<\/a> is scheduled to grill City Hall on its ongoing coordination with influencers on Signal, an encrypted messaging app where messages can be set to automatically delete, which has raised questions about transparency and security.<\/p>\n

The news of the hearing comes after a report in\u00a0the Columbia Journalism Review<\/a> revealed that the Mamdani administration, as part of a larger effort to get news out to New Yorkers on social media<\/a>, maintains a 200-person group chat on the app to send content creators information, daily updates, talking points, clips to use in their posts, and potential opportunities to make videos with the mayor.<\/p>\n

The chat group, titled NYC Creators Announcements, is run by Emilia Rowland, the director of new media and cultural communications at the NYC Office of the Mayor, according to the report.<\/p>\n

While Ramzi Kassem, the mayor\u2019s chief counsel, said in a statement that \u201cthere is no City policy against using Signal,\u201d city officials\u2019 use of encrypted apps, where messages can be set to automatically delete, would run afoul of Freedom of Information laws.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like the mayor, I want to be supportive. I like the influencers I know, I respect them,\u201d Committee Chair Gale Brewer\u00a0told the Daily News. \u201cBut can you FOIL\u00a0for this information?\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s currently no evidence that messages are set to disappear in the City Hall Signal group with online influencers.<\/p>\n

Mayor Mamdani emphasized on Wednesday that working with influencers was an important way the administration shares information to reach all New Yorkers \u2014 many of whom get their news while scrolling social media.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy administration will always strive to fully comply with all legal requirements, including those that relate to the preservation of city records, and if there are any departures from what is legally required, my administration will look into it immediately and take corrective action,\u201d the mayor added at the Brooklyn press conference.<\/p>\n

The city council hearing is slated for Sept. 22.<\/p>\n

\u201cCity leaders must be deliberate about how they communicate,\u201d Citizens Union Executive Director Grace Rauh said in a statement. \u201cAny discussion of official government business must occur in a manner that ensures records are preserved and accessible under the Freedom of Information Law. The rules exist to protect the public.\u201d<\/p>\n

The group chat serves as an information pipeline for creators with thousands or even millions of followers. It grew out of a \u201cCreators4Zohran\u201d group from last year\u2019s race in support of Zohran Mamdani\u2019s bid for mayor<\/a>, per the report in CJR.<\/p>\n

The Mamdani administration has\u00a0\u201cnever paid a content creator for a collaboration or for content production,\u201d a spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

\"MayorMayor Zohran Mamdani. (Barry Williams \/ New York Daily News)<\/p>\n

Working with content creators is not a new practice: City agencies, including under former Mayors Adams and de Blasio, have partnered with online personalities to put out information about topics like public health, voting and compost. Councilmembers, including Speaker Julie Menin have also done videos with content creators. And nationally, Democratic and Republican National Committees and both Biden and Trump\u2019s White Houses have made a practice of hosting influencer-friendly events and making efforts to keep them abreast of new developments.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not keeping up with the new way of communicating; I think the government is slow sometimes,\u201d Brewer said. \u201cGovernment has to be more up to date and obviously in this case I don\u2019t think we are.\u201d<\/p>\n

Multiple councilmembers are looking at introducing legislation, including Queens Councilmember Phil Wong, who said that, while he has no problem with City Hall communicating with influencers, he\u2019s concerned about instances where they are paid for posts<\/a>. Wong is looking at a bill to require disclosures for posts that were paid for by the city.<\/p>\n

\u201cGovernment can communicate,\u201d Wong said on social media. \u201cBut taxpayers have a right to know when they\u2019re paying for the message.\u201d<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for Menin<\/a>, who has frequently served as a check on the mayor, said that the speaker was not driving this issue herself but is supportive of a hearing.<\/p>\n

Councilmember Chi Oss\u00e9, a Gen Z rep and ally of Mamdani\u2019s, suggested hosting the hearing was out-of-touch with New Yorkers\u2019 pocketbook issues.<\/p>\n

\u201cFINALLY, this is what\u2019s going to make New York City more affordable!\u201d Oss\u00e9 sarcastically wrote on social media.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The City Council\u2019s Committee on Governmental Operations is scheduled to grill City Hall on its ongoing coordination with…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1041616,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,13239,37971,5708,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-1041615","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-america","tag-city-hall","tag-influencers","tag-mamdani","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-newyork","tag-newyorkcity","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117209402742019728","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1041615","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1041615"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1041615\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1041616"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1041615"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1041615"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1041615"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}