A few months ago, Azeza Kasham of Belleville, Mich., was at her wit’s end.
The mother of four was working 20 to 30 hours of overtime each paycheck to support her family. Her husband has serious health challenges and her eldest son, who is in the late stages of Lafora disease, requires intensive care. She had already lost another child to the rare condition.
Everything changed when she reached out to Josh Liljenquist.
The Minnesota-based influencer has a huge online following for "kindness" content. He posts videos showing him rewarding people who offer him help and buying food or gifts for strangers.
He flew to Michigan to profile Kasham’s family and ended up raising over $600,000 with a GoFundMe to help them get a wheelchair-accessible van and a home that accommodates their needs.
“Not only did he advocate for me, he lent me his voice,” Kasham said. “And it's just completely changed my life.”
So she was shocked when St. Paul officials banned Liljenquist from all city parks and recreation buildings for six months.
In a letter dated April 6, Andy Rodriguez, director of parks and recreation for St. Paul, accused Liljenquist of “breaching the peace” at Pig's Eye Park, where there's a large encampment, by going there to "harass, record and profit from vulnerable adults." City officials also believed he had planned an unlicensed event for mid-April.
Liljenquist and his team denied the city's allegations.
“We're not necessarily focused on content. We're just focused on making the biggest impact on people, honestly,” Liljenquist said, adding that he always has consent from people filmed and he does just as much work to support people off camera.
He said officials never raised concerns to him. He appealed the ban, and it was overturned on Wednesday based on “an evaluation of the facts," according to a city letter.
“This should have never been a thing in the first place, and it hurts to be completely misrepresented all over social media. I’m glad the truth came out, and I hope everyone who saw the first post sees this one as well,” Liljenquist wrote in a Facebook post afterwards.
“I will continue doing what I’ve always done, showing kindness, respecting people, and making a positive impact.”
The ethics of kindness content
The 28-year-old content creator is among popular influencers known for “kindness” content. Creators either help people in need or pretend to be them.
He started his channel about four years ago, back in his hometown of Fairmont, Minn., inspired by his grandfathers who offered free services to people who couldn’t afford them.
A research center dedicated to supporting philanthropy reports content creators like him are inspiring young donors.
“There's a reason why we have celebrity spokespeople, because they influence others to give. Peer-to-peer fundraising is one of the pillars of the work,” said Tory Martin, the director of engagement and knowledge building at the Johnson Center for Philanthropy.
Martin said people typically learned to give through churches and family, and social media is now encouraging people.
But not everyone agrees with “kindness” creators’ content or methods. Over the years, critics have questioned whether people filmed gave consent and the ethics of making money off people in need.
At Pig’s Eye Park, the center of the ban at question, some were glad to see Liljenquist kept out. There are dozens of tents at the St. Paul encampment, isolated in an industrial area outside downtown. A few who spoke with MPR News on Saturday evening expressed concerns about Liljenquist’s content.
Abby shares a tent with her boyfriend Cotis and his two dogs. MPR News is not using their last names to protect their privacy. In their encounters with Liljenquist, they say he did not ask for consent to film.
“The videos are hard to watch personally because they're so inappropriate,” Abby said. She called Liljenquist “tactless” and said she’s asked him to remove videos of other unhoused people who are on drugs. The couple shared some people are furious at how they’ve been portrayed.
They said Liljenquist isn’t helping most people find long-term shelter and he has denied specific asks. Abby sought vegetarian meals and Cotis asked for phone minutes after he was featured in one of Liljenquist’s videos. That makes his “kindness” creation feel like a joke, they said.
“I've always had respect for what he's doing and everything. I still do. However, I just feel that he doesn't realize the responsibility that he holds, because he affects people in greater ways than I think he realizes,” said Cotis, who said he still hasn’t seen the video that featured him. It has 3.7 million views on TikTok.
“Honestly, he got to grow up. Straight up, you know, because it's a lot of real tacky things he doing coming out here,” he added. “We’re out here, we’re living real life, and he’s probably taken a video of everyone in this camp.”
