Govt explains guidelines for paid endorsements by social media influencers

Disclosure must be placed in endorsement message in a manner that is clear, prominent, and hard to miss

The government on Monday 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.

The department of consumer affairs in January issued guidelines for such influencers, including virtual avatars, to disclose their material connections while endorsing products.

The department admitted later the guidelines were creating confusion. It now says that for paid or barter brand endorsement, any of the following disclosures can be used: advertisement, ad, sponsored, collaboration, or partnership. The term must be indicated as a hashtag or headline text.

"The size of the social-media influencer market in India last year was Rs 1,275 crore and by 2025, it is likely to be Rs 2,800 crore. There are more than 100,000 social-media influencers of substance, and this calls for a check," said the department.

Guidelines issued in January said that individuals should not endorse any product or service that they have not personally used or experienced or in which due diligence has not been done by them.

"Influencers not disclosing their material connections with their products or services will be in accordance with the rules only if they had used or experienced them in the past," it said.

The department made it clear that individuals or groups with access to an audience and having the power to affect purchasing decisions or opinions about a product, service, brand or experience should disclose their material connections that may affect the weight or credibility of the representation made by them.

It also stated that the disclosure must be placed in the endorsement message in a manner that is clear, prominent, and hard to miss.

The guidelines said the disclosures and endorsements should be in the same language. Also, in the case of limited space platforms like Twitter, hashtags with short terms like “ad”, “sponsored”, and “paid” are acceptable.

In picture endorsements, disclosures should be superimposed on the image big enough for viewers to notice them, whereas for video content, they should be placed in the video and not just in the description. It should be in both the audio and video formats.

However, in livestreams, disclosures should be made in both audio and video format and should be displayed continuously and prominently.