Digital Footprints Pose a Risk for Young Political Candidates
On June 19, Zack Weiner, then a candidate for New York City Council, released an unusual statement on Twitter. A video of him participating in a sex act with a past partner had leaked online, and Weiner was left to manage the aftermath. In his statement, composed on the iPhone Notes app, Weiner explained the situation. But rather than express apology or shame, he said there was nothing wrong with what he’d done and urged voters to look past this “distraction” to policy.
“The first couple days, I was especially scared, and definitely kept thinking … What have I done here?” Weiner tells Teen Vogue. He had not considered the prospect of this particular video leak, but the thought of other social media posts resurfacing during his campaign did worry him. “It's really hard with the digital footprint; there's going to be a lot that’s embarrassing," Weiner says. "I cringe when I look at my Facebook Messenger.”
A 2018 Pew Research Center survey found that 45% of U.S. teens report being online nearly constantly. All of this activity means we’re creating a permanent record of our lives — every passing opinion, embarrassing photo, and protest attended. For young people who grew up on the internet and later decide they want to go into politics, digital footprints can become ticking time bombs. Opposing candidates — or just random Twitter critics — have a huge trove of potentially compromising material at their disposal. So what happens when old posts meet new aspirations? And how can young candidates reclaim their past?
Alison Dagnes, a political science professor at Shippensburg University in Pennsylvania, tells Teen Vogue how the cultural shifts associated with digital media affect politics. “All of this has changed so dramatically that it has changed the way we think, the way we communicate, the way we process information, and the way we understand the world around us to include politics,” she explains.
The line between personal and professional is blurred as individuals share intimate moments of their lives more freely than ever before. Says Dagnes, "I imagine those scandals are going to continue to kind of level up, as we are trying to figure out what to litigate and whatnot in terms of social media past.”
Juliana Bennett is a rising senior at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the city’s District 8 alder. Unlike most college students, her social media posts are public record — a new territory Bennett navigates with candor and care. “When I post something, I always think, Am I okay with this being in anyone's hands? If that passes the ‘yes’ test, then I post it, because once it's out there you can't take it away,” Bennett tells Teen Vogue. “It just makes it a bit more weird. But I try to just remain true to myself."
Elected in April, Bennett is the youngest member of the Madison Common Council. She says she felt compelled to run for office after spending the summer of 2020 organizing for Black Lives Matter, and sat in on a council budget hearing about whether or not to approve a police grant, which she says ran over six hours. “I was just sickened that we had to spend this long discussing an issue that, to me, seems like a pretty straightforward answer, if we want to meet the demands of the community,” Bennett recalls.
“I was mad. I was so tired of the status quo — the status quo that did not want to address the issues that mattered,” Bennett continues. “I [thought], If not now, then when? And if not me, then who? So I decided to run.”
Bennett’s policy platform includes affordable housing, reimagining public safety, and sustainability. One priority is working to restore affordable housing units and making them more accessible to college students.
But, she says, she’s not always taken seriously because of her age and identity. “I'm constantly being questioned or looked down upon as if I'm just some young kid,” Bennett says. “I'm a young person, I'm a Black woman, I'm a queer Black woman and my voice is f*cking important.”
Bennett says her social media activity also comes under heightened scrutiny because she’s a young Black woman in politics: “Using my personal accounts, I genuinely wonder what kind of interaction I would get if I were white. And it's something we thought about even during the campaign.”
Former congresswoman Katie Hill knows the dangers of digital media in politics better than most. Hill resigned in 2019 after nude photos of her were leaked and she admitted to having a relationship with a staffer. She’s since written a book and become an advocate for women running for office.
Hill tells Teen Vogue that women often bear the brunt of political scandal and are unable to restore their public image the way men do. “With Matt Gaetz and over and over and over again, we basically see men who have [allegedly] done really horrible things, and just don't really have to pay any consequences for it,” she says.
Hill has found solace in recognizing that our old social media posts do not define us, and that we can choose how we view our own stories — even if they’re made public in a way we wouldn’t choose. “You have to have this awareness that this can happen, right? That the worst can happen," she says. "And, you know, I say, I am pretty much the worst-case scenario, right?”
The ubiquitous presence of social media in the lives of young people means most future politicians will likely have a virtual shadow. Political scandals are not felt evenly or fairly, and it is up to future generations to change the conversation around judgment and shame and determine which politicians have constituent interests at heart.
Hill describes the importance of “owning yourself and owning your past and being able to say, ‘Yes, I may have done stupid things when I was in college or whatever, but this is who I am now,’ and if someone tries to weaponize something about my past that has nothing to do with my ability to lead or my policy priorities or anything like that, then I’m not going to let them use that.”
Says Hill, “The biggest tool that we have is being authentic and talking about our stories, and making sure that more women feel empowered to share their stories and call attention to the double standard.”
Want more from Teen Vogue? Check this out: Katie Hill’s Resignation From Congress Over a Sex Scandal Played Out Unfairly
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Originally Appeared on Teen Vogue
