Social media influencers must use words like ‘paid promotion’, ‘ad’ or ‘sponsored’ in endorsements, said government as part of its new guidelines
The government mandated in January that social media influencers reveal their 'material' financial interests in promoting goods and services. Violations are punishable by harsh judicial action, including a ban on endorsements
The Dept of Consumer Affairs, under the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, released a set of guidelines called "Endorsements Know-Hows!" for celebrities, influencers, and virtual influencers on social media platforms
The guidelines aim to ensure that individuals do not mislead their audiences when endorsing products or services and that they are in compliance with the Consumer Protection Act and any associated rules or guidelines
The guidelines state that endorsements must be made in simple, clear language and individuals must not endorse any product or service that they have not personally used or experienced
Govt stated that for paid or barter brand endorsement, words like "advertisement," "ad," "sponsored," "collaboration," or "partnership" must be used as disclosure and must be indicated as a hashtag or headline text
The guidelines state that the disclosure must be placed in the endorsement message in a manner that is clear, prominent, and extremely hard to miss and should not be mixed with a group of hashtags or links
For endorsements in a picture, disclosures should be superimposed over the image enough for viewers to notice and displayed continuously and prominently during the entire stream
All influencers, either micro or big ones, like Bhuvan Bam, Prajakta Koli, Virat Kohli, Shah Rukh Khan, will come under the guidelines released by the government for any paid promotion on social media platforms
Markets watchdog Sebi will come out with a discussion paper to frame guidelines to control unsolicited financial advice from social media influencers and also from unregulated investment advisors