The New York City Council has scheduled an oversight hearing for Sept. 22 to investigate a secret group chat used by the administration of Mayor Zohran Mamdani to coordinate with social media influencers. The encrypted Signal chat, titled NYC Creators Announcement,
was revealed in a report by the Columbia Journalism Review (CJR).
City Council to Hold Hearing on Mayor Mamdani’s Influencer Network
The network consists of nearly 200 influencers who receive administration talking points to share with their followers. According to the CJR, some of these digital content producers had been paid by city agencies for outreach campaigns, though the researchers noted a lack of detail regarding those contracts.
The Mamdani administration has defended the use of Signal but has not answered further questions regarding the payments or whether the network was activated to counter media coverage of the CJR report and a front-page story in The Post.
Influencers Admit to Parrotting Administration Spin
Following the disclosure of the group chat, several influencers have publicly acknowledged their ties to City Hall. Lisa Chin Mollica, a 48-year-old Brooklyn resident who runs the Instagram account Vote In Or Out,
admitted to her 1.1 million followers that she uses the administration’s preferred messaging.
Mollica described an operation where City Hall employees, funded by taxpayers, provide her with a “constant stream” of event notices, background, access, and policy information via direct text and other communications. While she claimed she has “never been paid” by the Mamdani team, her account features captions that resemble official press releases. For example, a Sept. 2 post regarding a moratorium on generative AI for city students stated, New York City introduces its first comprehensive AI policy for public schools,
accompanied by a clip of the mayor.
Other creators have also come forward:
- Ariana Afshar: Claimed she “covers the news” while simultaneously expressing her “genuine” love for the Mamdani administration.
- Cassie Willson: Posted a screenshot to her 314,000 Instagram followers of a check for $10,000 she claimed was payment from the Mamdani campaign, stating,
If they had actually done their research, they would have found this very real check that I have in my New York City apartment that I got from the Mamdani campaign.
Public Reaction and Allegations of Bias
The revelation of the “secret network” has drawn criticism from social media users. In the comments of Mollica’s posts, one user responded to her claim that she is not a paid employee by stating, You might not work for Mamdani, but the bias is very much real.
The CJR report and subsequent media coverage have highlighted the tension between the administration’s use of influencers to disseminate “news” and the reality of their role as conduits for City Hall spin. The upcoming Sept. 22 hearing is expected to address the transparency and legality of using city resources to maintain a coordinated network of digital creators.
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