‘An ethics issue’: Why some creators are re-auditing their brand deals after Hootsuite-ICE controversy

Tameka Bazile was one of those creators. Bazile said she was concerned that Hootsuite’s social‑media management and monitoring tools would allow ICE to track and surveil online users. Hootsuite CEO Irina Novoselsky has refuted those claims, saying that its contract with ICE does not include tracking or surveillance of individuals, according to CBC News. Digiday reached out to Hootsuite to understand its approach to creator partnerships after the fallout.

According to a spokesperson for the brand, “We have a deep respect for the voices in our creator and partner community, and want to clearly restate that this engagement is not a reflection of Hootsuite (nor the creators we work with) endorsing any organization’s policies, positions, or actions.”

After learning of the Hootsuite and ICE partnership, Bazile took to LinkedIn to announce she would, “never again entertain working with brands that profit off my back, while supporting the hunting of my people” — that includes Hootsuite.

“After everything happened with Hootsuite for the first time, I was realizing these partnerships go a little bit deeper,” Bazile said on a recent episode of the Digiday Podcast, “because I am ultimately aligning my name and my likeness with every collaboration and partnership that I do.”

Bazile said she has implemented a brand audit, going through brand deals from the year to ensure she isn’t inadvertently associated with companies that conflict with her values or audience expectations.

The part-time business influencer has more than 60,000 followers across social media and worked with Hootsuite a couples times a year. She’s also worked with brands like Amazon Prime, Ally, and Nissan.

Digiday recently spoke with Bazile to hear how she audits her brand partnerships, the ways it affects her earnings, and why her morality clause now protects her as much as the brands she works with.

Here are a few highlights from the conversation, which have been edited for length and clarity.

Severing the relationship with Hootsuite

Bazile: For the first time, I was staring down the barrel of an ethics issue for me, and whether or not I would continue working with this brand and monetizing my platform alongside this brand. Or as somebody who is also still employed full time, how do I want to move forward as an entrepreneur? How do I want to move forward as a creator? Ultimately, I just came to the conclusion that this is my opportunity to build something where I call the shots completely. And I ultimately decided to sever my relationship with Hootsuite as well, because I just couldn’t find any reason why I would continue to support a brand that I personally could not connect.

The auditing process

Bazile: I just decided to take a few hours one day to go through and do a very high level Google search on all of the partners that I’ve had within the last year. I looked up a lot of relevant keywords for them — I even used AI — keywords such as DEI, keywords such as AI… I even looked into who were the major stakeholders of a lot of the different brands that I’ve worked with. Who is at the top? Who has invested in this brand overall, or in this company overall? Ultimately, what I was looking for was simple: what has publicly been stated about this brand, what has been questioned?

Public statements and deleted posts

Bazile: I actually did not have a direct conversation with them or the Hootsuite representative, for a lot of reasons, actually, but I didn’t think it was necessary, considering that I did make a public statement about my disconnect from them, and I went back and forth about how I wanted to approach this. Should I take down the content that had already gone live? I ultimately pulled down about four or five different posts from my partnerships with Hootsuite.