‘A complete misrepresentation of myself’: Greens supporter Holly MacAlpine demands apology from Liberal Party after TikTok tiff

Holly MacAlpine is a vocal supporter of the Greens. The Libs took her video, cropped it and reposted it — changing the message without her permission. Now, she wants an apology.

The Liberal Party has used social media content from an influencer and social justice advocate without her permission, cropping it to “misrepresent” and warp her messaging.

Holly MacAlpine called out the official LNP TikTok page after they cherrypicked a sound bite from a video where she was doing a ‘true or false’ skit with Greens senator Larissa Waters.

Holly MacAlpine has called out the LNP's official TikTok page for their nonconsenual use of her content. Picture: Supplied

In the clip, Ms MacAlpine is wearing a Greens shirt and she prompts: “the Greens just protest, they don’t actually get anything done” — intended as a statement to reply ‘true’ or ‘false’ to.

Ms Waters then replies: “Well, we do love protests, and we want to protect people’s right to protest, ‘cos that’s how social change gets made, but we have been able to deliver so many things in parliament.

“The pressure that we’ve brought and the community movement that we represent – we’ve managed to get $3bn extra for social housing … We’ve pushed to make the GP free and a few months later, the government said ‘wow, we’re going to do that.”

However, the LNP cropped the video to only include Ms MacAlpine’s prompt, making it seem as though she was blatantly criticising the party she openly supports.

The LNP cropped the video to only include Ms MacAlpine’s prompt, making it seem as though she was blatantly criticising the party she openly supports. Picture: Supplied

The LNP’s video was seven seconds long – compared to Ms MacAlpine’s, which was 50 seconds long – and was captioned simply with ‘agreed’.

Ms Macalpine told National News Network that the positioning of herself as a political operative was “completely disingenuous”.

“I am a private citizen and am entitled to share my views online,” she said.

“To have taken my content without permission, edited it to remove vital context and deliberately misrepresent me and my beliefs for their own gain is unacceptable.

“The Liberal Party’s response has been nothing short of dismissive and I am currently taking legal advice given their complete unwillingness to remedy this situation.”

In addressing the issue online , Ms MacAlpine made a video and said “this is exactly why the Liberal Party do not support truth in political advertising”.

“This is a major political party and they have taken my content without my consent, they have edited it to make myself say something negative about the party that I support, and they have had that authorised and posted to their official channel,” she said.

“From a major party, this is just absolutely unacceptable. It is an embarrassment.”

In addressing the issue, Ms MacAlpine made a video and said “this is exactly why the Liberal Party do not support truth in political advertising”. Picture: Supplied

She also referenced the recent suggestion by Liberal senator Jane Hume that influencers were being paid by Labor and the Greens to make favourable social media content, despite the AEC finding these claims to be false.

“This comes days after Senator Hume has come for influencers and their transparency in how they deal with political parties. The hypocrisy is so jarring I don’t even have the words for it,” Ms MacAlpine said.

Ms MacAlpine referenced the suggestion by Liberal senator Jane Hume that influencers were being paid by Labor and the Greens to make favourable social media content, despite the AEC finding these claims to be false. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

In the comment section of the video, an AEC spokesperson said “electoral laws do not regulate truth in election advertising”.

“They require authorisations for certain communication which the video in question appears to have.

“Authorisation statements are about people knowing the source of the communication, so it enables voters to consider that source when determining what they think of the message.”

Ms Waters said the “unfortunate episode” was representative of “what the Liberal Party think of [young women]”.

“First the liberal party thought young women with a platform couldn’t hold a political stance without being paid by a party,” she said.

“Now they think it’s okay to steal and misrepresent their content.

“News flash to the LNP: young women have political opinions and aren’t afraid to share them.”

A Coalition spokesperson said they “stand by” their post.

“Ms McAlpine is a political operative using her platforms to promote partisan political messages,” they said.

“We stand by reposting her unedited (albeit cropped) comments.”

Ms MacAlpine has been contacted for comment.

Originally published as ‘A complete misrepresentation of myself’: Greens supporter Holly MacAlpine demands apology from Liberal Party after TikTok tiff