During the age of misinformation, the Baldoni-Lively lawsuits put the onus on social media platforms and influencers

This summer, my social feeds were flooded with comments about actress Blake Lively—her performance in interviews, her brands and her treatment specifically of other women.

It started when the film adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s novel It Ends With Us was released. Almost immediately, the rumor mill and social media channels started to flood with past interviews and comments around Lively’s promotion of the film. Lively is the leading actress starring alongside actor and director, Justin Baldoni, who she has since filed a lawsuit against for sexual harassment, retaliation, breach of contract, inflicting emotional distress and conspiring to damage her reputation through social media. Since then, Baldoni has also issued a lawsuit against Lively.

Instead of putting out a statement or doing an interview, Lively came with the receipts (literally) and an in-depth lawsuit showing the treatment she endured during the production of the film, as well as after. The lawsuit against Baldoni claims his PR camp enacted a “smear campaign” against Lively through social manipulation in an effort to mask her previous complaints to the studio about his on-set behavior.

In the process, Lively and team highlighted the importance of seeing our sources for who they are and where they may get information from in this age of social media news consumption.

What happened in this situation (from what we know to date) is allegedly, influencers and social media channels were provided information to help flame the fire of canceling the actress. In the PR world, this tactic to sway or mislead public opinion is known as ‘astroturfing.’ It is largely practiced in politics.

From the lawsuit, the industry has seen how influencers and social media channels can quickly take the word of a publicist and spin it as needed. Influencers have a responsibility—the same way brands and advertising agencies do — to research, find out what’s true and to be transparent about where they are receiving their information and “facts.” 

In the process, Lively’s personal brand was attacked as well as her business ventures. How much that ended up costing her is yet to be determined. The release of her haircare line to coincide with the film release ended up hurting that product launch, rather than helping it, but it is undetermined if that was due to the alleged social media smear campaign conducted by Baldoni’s team.

In an age when influencers are now media sources, it’s more important than ever for transparency and honesty about sources. Some may say that Lively’s past has come back to haunt her (with the past interviews in particular, as well as the promotion of her hair and beverage brands during the film’s release). Two things can be true: the publicity and social media stunt pulled off by Justin Baldoni and his team was insensitive, misogynistic and hurtful to many. And Lively’s past interviews aren’t sparkling reflections of her either.

But there are more at fault here: Those influencers who shared information, didn’t push back on claims and didn’t share how they were receiving that information. 

The lawsuit has already produced a ripple effect. In the week following the lawsuit, Baldoni lost representation from WME, received a resignation from his podcast co-host and I’m assuming endorsements will not be far behind, if that hasn’t happened already.

Influencers play more than a role in just getting the buzz out about a product or a film. They also play a role in how a person is portrayed and may be represented moving forward. Similarly, marketers have a role in how they represent a brand, a person, or a product. The tone, the voice, and the story of a brand can be looked at just the same way that Blake Lively was viewed throughout the promotion of It Ends with Us. We can all take a lesson from this ongoing lawsuit.

Moving forward, social influencers can use this as a learning opportunity to make sure to get all of the facts, to cross check and to ensure that publicists are sharing appropriate information.

Charlene Coughlin is the president and partner of Twist Creative, Inc.