Guidelines for Celebrities & Influencers on social media platforms

In News

• The Ministry of Consumer Affair, Food & Public Distribution has released a set of guidelines for celebrities, influencers, and virtual influencers on social media platforms. 

About 

• The guidelines called ‘Endorsements Know-hows’ aims to ensure that the individuals do not mislead their audiences when endorsing products and services and that they are in compliance with the Consumer Protection Act, 2019. 
• The Department of consumer affairs in January issued guidelines for such influencers, including virtual avatars, to disclose their material connections while endorsing products. 
• The government explained its guidelines for paid endorsements by social media influencers, clarifying what it meant by the use of words like advertisement, sponsored, collaboration or paid promotion.

Guidelines Issued

• The influencer-related violations account for over 30% of the advertisements investigated by the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI).
• The Ministry of Consumer Affair, Food & Public Distribution stated in January 2023 that advertisers found to be deceiving customers would face fines of up to Rs. 50 lakh.
• These influencers may also be refrained from using online platforms for up to 2 years.

Need 

• Increase in the use of social media for promotional activities.
• India’s social media influencer market is expected to reach ? 2,800 crores by 2025.

Issues of Misleading Advertisements

• The misleading advertisement violates the Right to Choose & Right to be correctly informed about the products & services.
• The false advertisement falsely portrays the use of product causing harm to the customers.
• Deceptive marketing of the products.

PIB