Pandora Gate “eaten” the campaign with its reach? Top 10 YouTubers could influence the elections
Photo: Jakub Kaczmarczyk/PAP
The scandal involving influencers called Pandora Gate at times overshadowed the brutal election campaign in which Law and Justice spent PLN 4 million on YouTube advertising alone. – One could argue that if one of the YouTube stars had publicly supported one of the parties during the peak of interest in Pandora Gate, it could have had an impact on the electoral result – says Grzegorz Zajączkowski, the European Commission’s digitization leader for Poland.
The beginning of October 2023 will mark a turning point in the history of the Polish Internet. The biggest stars began to be removed from the pantheon of influencers and streamers – they were publicly accused of, among others, about pedophilia, sexual violence against teenagers and grooming.
Millennials and boomers, living at that time rather than public debate and brutal election campaigns, had to Google who Stuart B. “Stuu”, Dubiel or Gargamel were. (Pato)streamers were exposed mainly by other whistleblower YouTubers whose para-investigative video materials were spread on the Internet more widely than the narratives of political parties’ election committees.
Politicians running for parliament also tried to manage the emotions that Pandora Gate aroused online.
Zbigniew Ziobro: the prosecutor’s office has initiated an investigation into the scandal related to Polish YouTubersTVN24
They are watching SA Wardęga at the ministry
On October 3, Sylwester Wardęga, one of the main accusers of Pandora Gate, who built his popularity, among others, videos of him dressing up as Spiderman and running away from the police, he publishes a video about “Stuu”. The material, composed of conversation records (some dating back almost a decade), statements by B.’s anonymous victims and preserved voice recordings, proved Stuu’s contacts with minors under the age of 15, including sexting with a 13-year-old in 2014.
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