Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita explained his state’s decision to sue TikTok on ‘The Evening Edit’.
A popular beauty influencer with more than 12 million followers on TikTok has defended “false advertising” in a now-deleted video.
“Even if she’s wearing false eyelashes, why does it matter?” Mads Lewis said in his now-deleted video. “I know it’s false advertising, but isn’t everything false advertising? Isn’t everything technically false a little bit?”
Controversy over the authenticity of TikTok ads began when beauty influencer Mikayla Nogueira was accused of wearing fake eyelashes while promoting L’Oreal Telescopic Lift Mascara. Nogueira described her lashes after using the product as “My dream lashes!!”
When users said they were seeing extra lashes, Nogueira denied that she had used the extension in now-deleted comments, according to Rolling Stone.
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Lewis, another influencer, argued that Nogueira’s use of fake lashes was not a big deal because of the prevalence of false advertising throughout the industry. The videos Resurfaced on another TikTok account The platform also stitches together the videos to ensure Lewis’ vision is preserved for posterity.
Mads Lewis attends the 2021 Breakout Awards at Universal Studios Hollywood on December 8, 2021 in Universal City, California. (Michael Talberg/Getty Images/Getty Images)
“Don’t get me wrong, it’s lying,” he continued, comparing Nogueira to food companies that change their products in advertising. “But everyone does it — especially when it comes to social media, and especially when it comes to making money.”
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“Sorry, if someone put $200,000 in your face and said, ‘Hey, promote my sh— mascara,’ I don’t think you’d think twice about it.”
Mikayla Nogueira on stage at the L’Oréal Paris Fall-A-Thon pop-up event featuring a live performance and Infallible Fresh Wear product experience at The Grove on March 19, 2022 in Los Angeles. (Getty Images by Stephanie Keenan/L’Oreal Paris/Getty Images)
Users condemned the takeover and argued that the problem wasn’t that Nogueira lied, but that he built his platform on “honest reviews” of products and then got caught “lying several times.”
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Other TikTok beauty influencers quickly criticized Nogueira, calling her behavior “weird” and accusing her of posting “misleading reviews” that could harm other influencers.
“People are putting their trust in us and it’s not good at all,” Alyssa Ashley, a beauty product reviewer with more than 435,000 followers, said in response to the controversy.
In a tongue-in-cheek write-up of the controversy, BuzzFeed noted that “investigating the apparent wrongdoing of a beauty influencer” is a step-down from some of the controversies that have plagued such accounts in the past few years.
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Recent controversies include James Charles Sending inappropriate texts to minors and accusations of racism and bullying from influencers including Laura Lee and Jeffree Starr. Buzzfeed notes that these users still have more than a million followers.
