Govt. announces new guidelines for social media influencers doing paid promotions

Department of Consumer Affairs on Friday announced new endorsement guidelines for social media influencers to regulate unfair practices. Influencers endorsing paid content without disclosure will be entitled to pay a fine of up to Rs 50 lakh.

In addition to this, endorsers on social media platforms should substantiate claims made by them in the promoted content. The new guidelines have been announced to protect consumers against any misleading promotions.

What are the new endorsement guidelines for social media influencers?

When it comes to social media influencers, they are growing in numbers each day. Whilst their content is getting popular, they get approached by several brands for promotional and advertisement needs. However, as you’d expect, most of the promotional content shared by the influencers is paid.

Instagram has its own brand endorsement option that users can tick to let every know that it’s a paid promotion. But unfortunately, not everyone discloses their paid content. Here’s where the new guidelines by the Department of Consumer Affairs come into the picture.

On Friday (20 January, 2023), the Department of Consumer Affairs announced new guidelines for social media influencers. Under these guidelines, it’s mandatory for social media influencers to disclose promotional content.

Additionally, the influencers should be able to substantiate the claims made by them in the promotional content. Defaulting would make them liable to pay a fine of Rs 10 lakh. If defaulting again, they would be charged up to Rs 50 lakh.

These guidelines are in accordance with the Consumer Protection Act, 2019. The Consumer Protection Act, 2019 is meant for protecting consumers from unfair trade practices and misleading advertisements.

Having said that, the new guidelines also say that the product and service that the influencer is advertising or promoting should be actually used or experienced.

While disclosing the endorsed content, it should be clear and visible to consumers. If it’s a promoted video, the disclosure should not just be in the description but also in audio and video format, so that it can be easily noticed by everyone.

Additionally, if it’s a Livestream where something is getting endorsed, it should also be disclosed in an aforementioned way, as per the guidelines.

It is worth noting that not just influencers, but any computer-generated avatars or virtual influencers who behave in a similar manner endorsing something paid, should also comply with the guidelines.

The government’s guidelines are welcomed by the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI).

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