Kalshi and Polymarket sponsor posts promoting LA election fraud claims
Kalshi and Polymarket paid to boost social media posts from users promoting viral claims of fraud in the Los Angeles mayoral election, according to a Friday report by journalist Max Tani. The platforms enlisted hundreds of paid influencers to spur interest in political races and other topics. After the posts circulated, Kalshi asked its paid influencers to remove content that cast doubt on the platform's odds and sowed doubts about the LA mayoral election, according to Semafor. Both platforms have now faced scrutiny over undisclosed or controversial influencer payments in the span of a single week.
Kalshi's request for influencers to remove the posts confirms the platform retains editorial control over paid political messaging it previously disclaimed. That admission arms CFTC investigators already probing Polymarket's $2.5M undisclosed influencer scheme with evidence that both platforms treat compensated promotion as manageable brand risk rather than a market-integrity control.
This week's coverage reveals both platforms caught in overlapping federal and reputational traps: Polymarket's CMO routed $2.5M through personal PayPal to 800+ influencers while the DOJ probes paid spokesperson George Santos for insider trading, and now Kalshi joins the same influencer-blowback pattern as both face congressional trading bans and criminal referrals.