Instagram has announced that it will catch rule-breaking influencers. It means it will report users who fail to reveal when they have received payment for their posts.
Instagram to report rule-breaking influencers following UK watchdog’s investigation
This announcement is after an investigation by a UK watchdog. It revealed that Instagram was unable to protect customers from being misled. The Competition and Market Authority (CMA) disclosed that many influencers are not following the rules.
Hence, Instagram has also decided to report users who fail to label their posts to the products’ businesses that they endorse. The platform will be rolling out new tools next year, which includes a prompt that requires influencers to confirm for receipt of incentives for promotion of a specific product or service before publishing their post. Also, the platform has built new algorithms to check for potential advertising content.
Influencer disguise endorsements to avoid engagement loss on Instagram says Sara Taskar
The UK watchdog calls Instagram’s new move as an important behavioral shift for social media. The spokesperson said that this would make it difficult for users to post an advert on Instagram without labeling it.
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Instagram coach and author Sara Tasker stated that the reason influencers try disguising endorsements is perception. She said that they do not want the audience to be turned away due to ads or risk loss of followers or engagement by been depicted as a sellout.
She further said that with clear disclosure regulations, the content would speak for itself, and the onus will once again be on influencers to create valuable and relevant posts irrespective of payment or ad.
Several social media stars pledge to refine online posts after CMA warning.
Many companies today have made influencers their new frontier as they are targeting the youth. As per social insights firm Captiv8, influencers with more than one million followers on the platform can earn close to $20,000 per post that they make on behalf of advertisers. Also, Forbes had recently predicted that the influencer space witnessed massive growth.
Last year, several social media stars like singers Rita Ora and Ellie Goulding, and models Alexa Chung and Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, committed to change their online posts. It was following CMA warning that their posts could potentially break consumer law.