Liver King: how the rise of mega-influencers has put consumers at risk

In the age of vloggers, influencers and content creators it might seem hard to imagine a world without YouTube. But back when the first ever video was uploaded in April 2005, showing a man visiting a zoo, it was not really clear who would want to watch it, or how YouTube could make money.

These days, anyone can make money online by building a brand around being themselves – or not – as Liver King, an extremely buff fitness creator recently found out. Liver King, is the social media personality of Brian Johnson, a muscular and often shirtless TikTok star who promotes “ancestral living” as something he does to be “strong, healthy and happy (autoimmune-free, eczema-free, allergy-free, fatigue-free”. For Johnson, this means eating platefuls of bull’s testicles, raw animal livers and cows’ brains.