The Advertising Standards Council of India or ASCI has made it mandatory for influencers to label all of their promotional content as such, whether they have received monetary benefits, or have received goods in barter.

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“Influencer marketing” in India has been very unregulated, especially more so when the talent isn’t being managed by a professional company. 

As a result, several influencers have indulged in practices that can only be labelled as dubious.

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People, in general, have had a problem with the manner in which some influencers have been conducting their businesses of late. 

Just this month, an investigative report went viral, which exposed that a few social media influencers were actually charging money to amplify SOS requests that they were getting from their followers.

Even if we ignore an incident such as this, there are clearly some questionable practices that brands and influencers often indulge in.

Very often, social media influencers speak about products or services, in a manner that would imply that they genuinely use them. 

In the minds of their followers, this creates an impression that the product must actually be good, given a trusted voice is recommending it.

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There is also the fact that as opposed to your regular advertisements, social media is full of short-lived posts with making it more difficult to track. 

On top of that, social media posts have a higher targeted reach as opposed to your regular adverts, which in turn means, that the intended audience may have seen the content in as little as half an hour.

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The new guidelines have made it for an influencer to clearly specify whether a post is an ad, sponsored content, collaboration, or partnership, etc. 

This should bring clarity to consumers, and protect them against any misleading communication in social media.

Going forth, influencers also have to verify the claims that they make while advertising a product. Up until now, no such provision was in place.

In case an influencer puts up a post, which contains some misleading information, and if it can be proven that the post is indeed an advertisement, the influencer, in this case, will be liable to pay a fine of Rs 10 lakh for the first offence. 

For repeat violators, the fine is Rs 50 Lakhs. This is possible because of the Consumers Protection Act.

For people on Twitter, this is a welcome move, one which has been received with a lot of enthusiasm.

With great influence, comes great responsibility. Here's coverage of our latest Influencer Advertising Guidelines launch, examining the need for such rules for social media.#ASCIResponsibleInfluencers #ASCI #bigbangsocialhttps://t.co/GKbbjtLD9L

— ASCI (@ascionline May 28, 2021

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If that is so almost all @IndiaToday should be marked as promotional PR for Modi and Yogi including their stupid Nonsense "So Sorry" cartoon which is nothing but open show of how much low a channel can go in bootlicking Modi. @sardesairajdeep. BJP Now, Jumla Republic is another.

— SN (@sach_n01 May 28, 2021

Good start. Gr8 to see a codified system of disclosure being implemented. Scope to plug the gap where no material connection between advertiser and influencers is evident, yet passively exists.

— Dhiraj Chadha (@dhincha May 27, 2021

Very interesting read! Have always said: don’t invest in any asset based on tweets or IG posts.

in Europe it’s mandatory to mention it’s an ‘ad’ while influencers produce content.

In India influencers are told to do it so subtly that it doesn’t look like an ad. https://t.co/PO4noNIWkx

— abhishek (@abhishek_tri May 25, 2021

Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI guidelines make it mandatory for influencers to label all kinds of promotional content, whether monetary or not. pic.twitter.com/0QJvlql0ke

— Vishal Sirur (@DASirur May 28, 2021 

What do you guys make of it? Have you ever bought something upon the recommendation of an influencer that you follow? Do let us know in the comments below.

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