Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) released the new guidelines for influencers who post content on different social media platforms including Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. Now influencers will have to add a disclosure label to clarify if a post includes paid advertisement.
These guidelines will come into effect starting June 14. The guidelines also ask influencers to put disclosure at a place where it can’t be missed by an average consumer. The disclosure label can be anything like advertisements, ads, sponsored, paid collaboration, or something similar. It shouldn’t be mixed in a group of hashtags or links. Influencers should use disclosure tools offered by the platform.
“It is critical that consumers are able to distinguish when something is being promoted with an intention to influence their opinion or behavior for an immediate or eventual commercial gain,” says ASCI.
If sponsored content is a video, the disclosure label must stay in the video for a minimum of 3 seconds. For videos longer than 2 minutes, the disclosure label must stay for the entire duration of the section where a product is being promoted. For audio posts, the disclosure must be clearly announced at the beginning and at the end.
ASCI also suggests influencers review the product and services before promoting it to their followers. There should also be no fake claim about the product in the sponsored content.
Now the primary question is how ASCI would monitor potential violators. ASCI has identified a French technology provider, Reech for this. Reech uses AI to identify a lack of disclosure on posts of a commercial nature on social media.
