As protests in Los Angeles against the Trump Administration stretched into their fifth day today NZT, social media creators have at times outnumbered the traditional press corps at rallies.
And they have played an outsize role in sharing media about what has happened on the ground.
Outfitted with their own makeshift press helmets and vests, a lot of creators – many of whom lean conservative – have livestreamed entire days of coverage and posted to social platforms such as X and streaming sites including Twitch and YouTube.
During some of the week’s most violent moments, Trump officials including Stephen Miller, and other figures such as billionaire Elon Musk, chose to amplify what the creators published, causing the posts to go viral and feeding the narrative that the violence has been out of control.
United States President Donald Trump said that California Governor Gavin Newsom and others were not in control of the protests, and called for National Guard troops to intervene.
Newsom has said the troops were unnecessary and has filed an emergency motion to stop the Trump Administration from sending the troops. At least 150 protesters have been arrested since Saturday NZT, officials said.
Among the creators at the protests was Cam Higby, 25, a journalist and political commentator for the conservative digital outlet Today Is America. He flew to Los Angeles from his home in Washington state last Friday after seeing videos of the demonstrations on X.
On Monday night local time, he livestreamed from the front lines of the protests alongside another online creator and friend, Aldo Buttazoni, 25.
Higby and Buttazoni previously worked for the conservative media outlet Prager U and brand themselves as “America First”.
Much of their content comes in the form of rebuttals to Democratic officials like Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass or Newsom.
Higby’s posts, which have amassed millions of views in recent days, blur the line between reporting and advocacy.
He sometimes posts video updates about police movements, and at other times repeats Trump’s rhetoric about how “LA NEEDS THE NATIONAL GUARD”, in attempts to stoke outrage.
“I would call it a duality: I do on-the-ground reporting and I also commentate on issues,” Higby said.
With a limited number of reporters in Los Angeles, Fox News tapped Higby and Buttazoni for unpaid television appearances over the weekend, cutting to them for live updates.
Liberal protesters who recognised Higby and Buttazoni berated them publicly, and Buttazoni eventually took off any identifying badges with his name from his clothes.
Higby said he received enough “credible threats” on social media that he paid $3000 to hire two bodyguards.
Left-leaning creators including Twitch streamer Hasan Piker, 33, have also reported from rallies in Los Angeles, though in seemingly smaller numbers.
Piker’s Twitch stream from the same Los Angeles protest Higby attended lasted eight hours and received 1.4 million views.
Andrew Callaghan, a Los Angeles journalist and the creator of media company Channel 5 News, which also covered the protests, said the market for protest and riot videos was born during the Black Lives Matter demonstrations of 2020.
But it has exploded since, with some right-wing creators using the “independent” label even though they are partisan, he added.
“They don’t have a boss, so they can say they’re independent, but they’re following the exact same incentive structures as the conservative establishment media,” Callaghan said in an interview.
“Clickbait, key frames that don’t reflect the reality of the situation, doing whatever they can to absorb the audience that otherwise would be watching the same programming on Fox News.”
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
Written by: Eli Tan
Photographs by: Philip Cheung
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