Love Island Molly Mae Hague's £8,000 giveaway sparks conversation about how influencers should use their platforms

Giveaways are a well established part of influencer culture.

For many influencers (and brands), they're a quick way to increase growth on social media – bare minimum entry requirements usually make wannabe winners follow a page and share a post.

Former Love Island contestant Molly Mae Hague’s latest giveaway is no different – but her sheer reach has now sparked a conversation about the power Instagram influencers wield.

Yesterday Molly Mae – who has become one of the most in-demand influencers in the UK since leaving Love Island – posted details of a new giveaway on her Instagram, to celebrate reaching 1 million subscribers on YouTube.

The prize was £8,000 worth of gifts, including a full set of Louis Vuitton luggage, an Apple Macbook and an Apple Watch, all purchased by Molly Mae herself, with no sponsorship.

Entrants had to complete a series of tasks, like following Molly Mae’s tanning brand, tagging a friend and reposting the giveaway on their stories.

Which quickly showed just how many people were entering the competition.

First there were jokes.

With 4.6 million followers, Molly’s reach is pretty widespread.

But others soon started to question what could be achieved with that kind of power.

And there was some chastisement of a hypothetical scenario that imagined people were quick to share Molly Mae’s giveaway but not ‘awareness’ of civil rights struggles like Black Lives Matter or the plight of the Uighur Muslims.

However, people quickly responded to the criticism by pointing out that what people do on social media is a personal choice.

And that one giveaway is not representative of everything.

Or that everything has to be posted on social media.

It’s 2020 – by now people should be vaguely aware of what content certain people produce.

And if you don’t like it? You know where the ‘mute’ button is.