“Social Media Influencer” Pivots From Mummy Blogging To One Nation, Joins Up With Pauline Hanson
She also defended herself against accusations of racism by mentioning one of her best friends is African-American.
Everyone hankers for a bit of change now and then, but as far as mid-career pivots go, it’s harder to find one stranger than a move from genial mummy blogging to spruiking Pauline Hanson’s One Nation.
Yet that’s exactly the path that Emma Azzopardi, AKA @illwah on Twitter, has chosen to follow, announcing yesterday that she will run as the second One Nation candidate gunning for the senate in South Australia.
Despite boasting almost half a million followers on Twitter, Azzopardi is, somewhat ironically, best-known for being unknown. The last time she hit the press was in February 2018, when she offered to sell 2,500 Twitter followers for USD$250. At the time, she was upheld as fuelling the social media giant’s “fake follower problem.” Certainly, it’s worth noting that despite boasting half a million followers, Azzopardi’s posts — genial, motivational epithets — rarely get over 100 likes
The First to apologise is the bravest,
The First to forgive is the strongest,
And the first to forget is the happiest <— Emma Azzopardi (@illwah) April 9, 2019
Azzopardi’s left (or, more accurately, radical right) turn was prompted by a March 18 Tweet in which she defended Pauline Hanson in the fallout of her disastrous interview with David Koch.
“Fanbloodytastic Pauline,” Azzopardi wrote.
Fanbloodytastic Pauline. It's not always about political agenda it's about, not bullying, giving someone a voice and protecting womens rights @PaulineHansonOz
Hate to say it, by @sunriseon7 @kochie_online is getting way to big for his boots. #RealTalk— Emma Azzopardi (@illwah) March 18, 2019
According to an interview with Azzopardi published in The Advertiser, the Tweet prompted One Nation to reach out and make contact.
In the same interview, the senate hopeful offered up a defence of the fringe, increasingly unpopular party.
“Everyone has said if you like Pauline Hanson, then you’re a racist, and I would say that is definitely not the case,” Azzopardi said. “My husband is Maltese, my business partner is Chinese and one of my best friends is African-American.”
She also claimed to be entering politics in an attempt to bring “an educated voice” to the debate.
“I want to give people a voice they didn’t know they had, an educated voice, not a voice of just jumping on the bandwagon of things that we are all passionate about which is racism and guns.”
It remains to be seen whether the new political dimension to Azzopardi’s online presence costs her followers.