Mayor Zohran Mamdani's administration is maintaining a private Signal chat group with about 200 online influencers, according to a study by the Columbia Journalism Review. The group, referred to as Creators4Zohran, provides these influencers with direct access to information and talking points from City Hall.
Among the participants in the chat is public school teacher and digital content strategist Sari Beth Rosenberg. Rosenberg, who has over 420,000 followers across various platforms, told CJR researchers that she sees her role as filling an information gap left by dwindling local news. She recently conducted an interview with Mamdani and Schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels, which was used to promote the administration's one-year moratorium on generative AI in public schools.
Nile Berry, who manages the Instagram account @urbanexplained and has 109,000 followers, shares content focused on New York City's future, real estate, and economics. His audience primarily consists of men aged 25 to 40 who work in finance and real estate. Berry has met directly with Mamdani to discuss the administration's housing plan to construct 200,000 units. He noted that he is not always in agreement with the mayor, having previously criticized proposals for city-run grocery stores and a pied-à-terre tax.
Diego León, a Bronx-based lifestyle influencer known as @dandyinthebronx with nearly 46,000 Instagram followers, has also participated in city-promoted campaigns. León conducted a paid promotion for the Department of Sanitation, encouraging his followers to vote in a "Municipal Madness" bracket to determine which neighborhood project would be prioritized for cleanup. The chosen project, "Clean up Illegal Dumping" in Soundview, was completed by the mayor within 100 days, although León noted Mamdani left shortly after a photo opportunity.
José Vilson, an education activist and adjunct at Columbia Teachers College, engages his over 12,000 Instagram followers with content on racial justice, politics, and New York City. Vilson stated that members of the Signal group are motivated by a genuine interest in the city and a desire to ask pertinent questions, rather than simply seeking association with the mayor. He has not been paid for his coverage. In a February video promoting the mayor's universal childcare expansion, Vilson interviewed Mamdani.
The Creators4Zohran group also includes influencers who do not reside in New York. Josh Greene, a 26-year-old from Southern California with 460,000 followers on @joshtheprogressive, has a history of being paid for political social media posts. Allie O'Brien, a 25-year-old from Connecticut, also frequently praises Mamdani on TikTok, calling him "mayor of uncontrollable joy."
Other active members include Alexis Williams, who called the Creators4Zohran group her "little family" and expressed interest in working for the city, and Layla Taremi, a TikTokker who attended an influencer news conference and was given the first question to ask Mamdani, prefacing it by saying she had "so much fun making content for you."