Influencers as Role Models

The claim that celebrities have special duties to serve as good role models has recently received significant attention in the philosophical literature on fame. In this article, we investigate the extent to which these general arguments concerning celebrities as role models can be extended specifically to social media influencers. According to the general role model argument, the fact that celebrities are widely known and admired gives them a high degree of influence over others’ behaviours. This gives them strong moral reasons to act virtuously and serve as a good example to others. Even though celebrities have a right to privacy, this is forfeited to a certain degree when they choose to open their private lives to the public or when they present themselves as role models. Influencers seem to be a paradigmatic example of celebrities who have a strong duty to be good role models; they are the focus of high levels of attention and admiration, and they offer their private lives for public consumption, often with the explicit intention to influence the behaviour of others. However, we suggest that influencers do not have a stronger duty to be a role model in comparison to traditional celebrities. In most cases, influencers do not present a genuine version of their private lives to the public, but are rather talented curators of a public persona that involves a performance of authenticity. Influencers should be entitled to the same privacy protections as other celebrities, provided they are transparent about the accuracy of what they represent as their private life. We finish by discussing the ethical implications that arise from this conclusion.