Content creator Hannah Ferguson has used her first press club speech to call for stronger rules around transparency and accountability for paid content – and announce plans to run for parliament at the next election.
While criticising traditional media for perceived bias on Wednesday – and pointing the finger directly at the Murdoch press – Ferguson also acknowledged social media should be regulated for its political content.
“I believe that there should be structural accountability for people online … there’s guidelines to be changed [and] I think there should be enforceable standards,” she said.
“We have to have frameworks in place to regulate this kind of work. But regulation should be uniform. Let’s force the Murdoch media to do the same.”
Ferguson is the co-founder and CEO of youth media platform Cheek Media Co, which publishes short reels on politics attracting tens of thousands of views. She curated a distinctive progressive voice on social media during the election campaign, and was part of a growing wave of content creators who dominated the social media space in the lead-up to the 2025 vote. She also hosts a podcast Big Small Talk and, between her personal and Cheek Media pages, has a combined following of about 275,000.
After Ferguson was invited to cover the federal budget earlier this year alongside other creators – some of whom had travel expenses covered – she was criticised by some media outlets.
Highlighting in her first speech that she had not accepted payment for political content during the election, she later said she was “concerned” about being “lumped together” with paid creators.
“I said ‘no’ to money from multiple political organisations that offered it to me this election cycle, and that was why so much of it was offensive, because I actively ensured I was a commentator that was freed from [bias] … Everything was my bias, but I was forthcoming with this.”
Ferguson backed a royal commission into Australia’s media concentration, but going even further than one proposed by the former prime minister and current US ambassador, Kevin Rudd.
“A government that will pass a world-first ban on social media for under-16s should establish a royal commission into Australia’s media concentration,” she said, “examining not only Murdoch, but the entire industry, including unregulated space and social media for which I form part.”
When it came to the new media landscape, she suggested “a lot of tests need to be put in place”.
“I’m not an expert but I think in the media landscape there needs to be a fit and proper person test. At a social media level, there needs to be clear regulations and guidance when it comes to authorisations, endorsements, collaborative posting,” Ferguson said.
“There’s not really that many limitations to who can advertise on different forms of media and what they can say and how they can lie.”
The room on Wednesday was filled with young women, some within the political space, including Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young (who Ferguson endorsed to become the next leader of the minor party) and members of independent senator David Pocock’s office.
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Ferguson told the crowd she planned to run as an independent Senate candidate for New South Wales in 2028 – though, she added, “not because I think I would win”.
“Running a campaign and losing, I think, is a powerful thing to do to show other young women that they can do the same thing and that it’s not embarrassing,” Ferguson said.
“It’s actually a triumph that you attempted to challenge a system and establishment.”
Ferguson said she considered herself a commentator, rather than a journalist. But she was adamant she and her peers should not be labelled as “influencers”, accusing mainstream media and politicians of trying to “undermine” their work.
“‘Influencer’ has been the dirtiest word of this campaign,” she said.
“They want to invalidate and undermine a group of powerful young women who developed the ability to communicate with audiences in a way that traditional media can’t.”
“The idea that influencers is an umbrella term that applies to me and [to] someone being paid by the Greens or a particular candidate, when I refuse to do that, that’s my concern. Because it delegitimises me in the process.”
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