FTC Plans To Crack Down On Influencers Providing “Fake And Manipulated Reviews”

thegamer.com:

The regulatory agency called the Federal Trade Commission recently revealed that it plans to crack down on "stealth advertising.” This comes amidst a recent push to update its guidelines against "fake and manipulated reviews." The organization has been fighting deceptive online advertising for the better part of this past decade.

The group released a document called Disclosures 101 for Social Media several years ago, but since the underlying guidelines were last updated in 2009, the FTC is now proposing changes that "reflect the extent to which advertisers have turned increasingly to the use of social media and product reviews to market their products." The proposed changes are primarily aimed at influencers, but social media platforms like Twitch are also in the crosshairs.

REALTED: If You Want To Support The Hogwarts Legacy Devs, Help Them Get A Union

"Online reviews and influencer endorsements are ubiquitous on the internet and they present real and new challenges," Commissioner at the FTC Rebecca Slaughter mentioned in a meeting on May 19, 2022. "Unlike yesterday's celebrity endorsers, influencers are often seen as experts in their market whether that's for fashion, health products, or cutting edge consumer technology.”

"Influencers constantly interact with their followers in their market or social niche. These are often relationships of trust and without clear guidelines and responsibilities. They're ripe for commercial exploitation and deception,” Slaughter explained. “The new guides make it clear that we intend to investigate breaches of that trust whether it's by brands manipulating reviews, influencers not disclosing material relationships with companies, or by microtargeting aimed at deceiving specific groups