Yesterday, actor and singer Demi Lovato announced they are now an official ambassador for Gaia, a conspiracy hub, which has been de-platformed from leading social media sites (meaning they can't have an account or place adverts) after spreading misinformation and conspiracy theories about everything from vaccines to aliens and even lizard people. Yes, really.
In their post - where Lavato beams a smile and showcases the loading screen for Gaia, they write ‘I’m thrilled to be a @wearegaia ambassador. Understanding the world around us (the known and the unknown) is so exciting to me!’
Gaia responded ‘We’re thrilled to have you, Demi!’ But some of Lovato’s fans are not so thrilled and believe Demi is promoting a dangerous platform. ‘Oh no this is really disappointing,’ one fan replies, while another tweeted ‘This is disturbing and irresponsible. Really shocking to see you support this site whose messaging aligns with dangerous conspiracies.’
The streaming platform describes itself as a ‘Netflix of spirituality’ but it goes much further than this. It originally did what it said on the tin, providing yoga videos and information about philosophical ideas.
But now, Gaia is known for bringing traffic to hateful conspiracies, hosting videos featuring antisemitic conspiracies, anti-vaxxers, and QAnon - the viral conspiracy that falsely claimed President Trump is facing down ‘Democratic paedophiles’.
While the platform started as a way for people to enjoy videos like yoga routines to do at home and philosophical ideas, the site has now become a hub for QAnon and other antisemitic conspiracies, as well as anti-vaxxers.
Lovato has previously spoken about their love of space, all things extraterrestrial, and their belief in alien life. Previously, the singer claimed to have met aliens before, calling them ‘beautiful’ and said that they would ‘love to shake hands’ with an alien.
Back in September, they hosted a docuseries on Peacock titled ‘Unidentified with Demi Lovato’ in which they explore what life there may be beyond this planet. When speaking about the series in an interview with Pedestrian, Lovato explained that they do not believe that beings from another planet mean to harm humans.
‘I really think that if there was anything out there that would want to do that to us, it would have happened by now,’ they said. ‘But I think that we have to stop calling them aliens because aliens is a derogatory term for anything. That's why I like to call them ETs!’
‘I think that the world is becoming a more open place,’ the star added. ‘Slowly, but surely, I think that we're making progress. And we're slowly getting there. But, you know, any progress is progress!’
In a news release Gaia put out earlier this month, the platform shared that ‘Lovato quickly fell in love with Gaia original series Ancient Civilizations and Deep Space' while 'continuing down their rabbit hole,' - which is a phrase often linked with conspiracy theorists and the process of starting with innocent content and falling into deeper, more problematic content.
They continued, saying 'Lovato's fascination with Gaia was sparked by their introduction to one of its show hosts Dr Steven Greer, founder of the Center for the Study of Extraterrestrial Intelligence (CSETI). After several profound experiences practising Dr Greer's meditation protocols intended to make contact with extraterrestrials, Lovato became enamoured with the study of consciousness.'
Gaia suggested they had chosen Lavato for this ambassadorship because they 'believe the fanbase Lovato continues to cultivate has a desire to dig deeper into the more important questions regarding the nature of reality.'
So, it’s likely that the extraterrestrial side of Gaia is exactly the sort of content Lovato is seeking from the Gaia platform, and this is why they're happy to use their influence by promoting it to their fans. But behind the harmless videos about contacting extraterrestrials and learning about paranormal activity, are the videos about pandemic deniers, dangerous misinformation surrounding autism, and false stories of election fraud Gaia are notorious for allowing and even promoting.
Lavato’s interest in aliens could act at the ‘gateway’ to a darker world of conspiracies through, with the potential for people to come across dangerous, harmful conspiracies. This works out this way because the more videos you watch on the platform, the more ‘alternative’ theories you’ll find. And vulnerable people are all the more susceptible to being influenced by deep conspiracy theories, starting out innocently watching space content and ending up affiliated with a ‘theory’ that’s more of a hate crime.
Now fans are questioning whether Lavato is innocently unaware of the deeper problems with Gaia, or if they are ignoring them for what’s bound to be a pretty big-money endorsement deal. One Twitter user writes ‘Demi Lovato really linking their fans to alt-right racist and antisemitic websites just for the fun of it.... there's nothing wrong with being interested in conspiracy theories but it doesn't take a big brain to figure out that most of these websites are very alt right.’ It’s unclear what their ambassadorship will entail but hopefully, Lavato can handle this promotion responsibly before they - and their fans - end up subjected to the dangerous ideas living on the streaming service.