By New York Post (Opinion) | Created at 2026-09-03 00:56:42 | Updated at 2026-09-03 01:54:00
1 hour ago
The Mamdani administration created a Signal chat to give lefty influencers talking points, according to a new report from the Columbia Journalism Review.
Gregory P. Mango for NY Post
Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s socialist revolution is on the march — with an army of nearly 200 social-media “influencers” promoting their Dear Leader’s message.
And much of it, apparently, on the taxpayer’s dime.
New Yorkers should be downright alarmed.
Per a Columbia Journalism Review report, it seems Hizzoner has launched a permanent, taxpayer-funded PR blitz disguised as legitimate city business and fused with City Hall-directed, North Korean-style propaganda boosting our socialist savior and pushing his team’s talking points.
It’s a clear abuse of power and city resources — and certainly not what most New Yorkers voted for.
The report points to a two-pronged approach: Paying content creators to work with city agencies to promote city services and initiatives, including tenants’ rights and voting — and disseminating daily talking points (via the Signal group chat encryption app) that influencers can do with as they wish.
The NYC Creators Announcements op is run by Emilia Rowland, a former campaign operative and now the director of City Hall’s new media and cultural communications office.
Rather than look to improve government, promote civic education or make New Yorkers’ lives better, the campaign’s primary objective is to boost Mamdani himself, and his goals, such as encouraging, for example, a tenants insurrection and ultimately a broader radical socialist agenda.
Already, Mamdani’s Office of Mass Engagement has brazenly partnered with the Democratic Socialists of America, using public resources to organize tenants in an anti-landlord crusade that has spiked 311 complaints by 25% citywide this year compared to 2025.
In other words, City Hall is spending taxpayer money to incite a renter revolt against private landlords via favored hipster “influencers.”
The use of the Signal app also raises troubling questions. Regular communication between city personnel and content creators — paid or unpaid — via an app that hides and deletes content seems sure to violate city records-retention rules and freedom of information law requirements.
Moreover, if content creators are being paid with taxpayer money, that needs to be disclosed.
We see eerie echoes here of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s dubious 2016 “agents of the city” dodge, where his administration attempted to shield communications with political consultants by claiming they were extensions of government.
And even more than de Blasio, our boy mayor is obsessed with his image (along with landlords, the rich and Israel).
Team Mamdani is showing contempt for the law, transparency and taxpayers.
The city’s political, ethical and criminal watchdogs — starting with City Council Speaker Julie Menin and her colleagues — need to step up and probe the key issues here without delay.
