Social media influencers will now have to add labels for paid content, new guidelines out

The Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) has unveiled the final guidelines for influencers advertising on digital media, set to come into effect from June 14, 2021.

The Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) has released new guidelines for social media influencers who upload content on various social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube. According to the new guidelines, influencers will now have to add a disclosure label to clarify if a post includes paid advertisements. Set to come into effect from June 14, 2021, these guidelines ask influencers to put such disclosure at a place where an average consumer cannot miss it. ASCI Chairman Subhash Kamath said that when people watch television or read newspapers, then they can easily distinguish between the program or content and the advertisement. They do not face any kind of confusion, but it is difficult to differentiate in social media. According to the new guidelines, 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.