New Delhi: The government will soon come out with guidelines for social media influencers, making it mandatory for them to declare their association with the product they endorse, sources said. "The Department of Consumer Affairs is coming out with guidelines on social media influencers. It is creating dos and don'ts for them," an official source said.
Sources said social media influencers, who have large followers on social media platforms like Instagram, are endorsing products after taking payments from the brands. As per the proposed guidelines, if social media influencers endorse any brand after taking money, they will have to declare their association with that brand, sources said.
Social media influencers will need to put disclaimers in such endorsement posts, they added. The guidelines might come within the next 15 days. Meanwhile, the department has completed the process of developing a framework to curb fake reviews posted on e-commerce websites. The same will be released shortly.
In May, the department along with the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) held a virtual meeting with stakeholders, including e-commerce entities, to discuss the magnitude of fake reviews on their platforms. Fake reviews mislead consumers into buying online products and services. The department had then decided it would develop these frameworks after studying the present mechanism being followed by e-commerce entities in India and best practices available globally.
Since e-commerce involves a virtual shopping experience without any opportunity to physically view or examine the product, consumers heavily rely on reviews posted on platforms to see the opinion and experience of users who have already purchased the good or service. "Traceability by ensuring the authenticity of the reviewer and the associated liability of the platform are the two key issues here. Also, e-commerce players must disclose how they choose the 'most relevant reviews' for display in a fair and transparent manner," Consumer Affairs Secretary Rohit Kumar Singh had said.
Meanwhile, the Centre Wednesday told the Delhi High Court that it will introduce at "some point in time" a framework to regulate social media platforms, including de-platforming of users by them. The Centre said the proposed framework would be prospective and therefore existing cases of suspension of social media accounts would have to be decided in terms of the existing regulations.
The statement was made by the central government counsel before Justice Yashwant Varma who was hearing a batch of petitions against the suspension of accounts of several social media users, including Twitter users. We have checked up in terms of your lordship's (last) order. The amendment will take place at some point in time, we don't really know (when).
It will be prospective and (therefore) these cases will perhaps have to be decided (as per the existing scheme), said advocate Kirtiman Singh, appearing for the Centre. Granting further time to the Centre to apprise it of subsequent developments, the court deferred hearing on the petitions till December 19 while observing, If the scope of the regulatory power that you (Centre) propose to invoke is known we will know what the contours of our jurisdiction are.
In August, the court had asked the Centre to state if it was contemplating any draft regulatory measures relating to social media platforms. During the hearing, the court on Wednesday questioned why the existing grievances on suspension and deletion of social media accounts should not be dealt with in terms of the proposed framework and said it wanted to understand the impact of any new regime on the cases before it. (Agency inputs)
