Has anyone checked in Emily Cooper from Emily in Paris fame? She may not be doing very well.
Motivated in part by a desire to protect people from the negative mental health consequences associated with social media use, the National Assembly of France’s parliament passed a bill on March 30.(Opens in a new tab) that introduces some new laws for influencers.
The bill would dramatically change the way French influencers post and would require platforms to build new tools to flag violations. The provisions of the bill include:
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Require all influencers to disclose whether they use a filter.
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Require all influencers to disclose whether their face or body has been photoshopped.
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Require all influencers to make it abundantly clear when their post is a paid promotion. France already requires sponsored content to be clear to users, but this law requires the disclaimer to be a banner over the photos and videos – not just included in the description.
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Require social media platforms to set up channels where consumers can report influencers.
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Influencers subject to the same rules as traditional media by limiting their promotions of financial products (hello, cryptocurrency bros), alcohol, tobacco and more.
If the bill passes the Senate – and, according to TechCrunch(Opens in a new tab)is there a “high probability” that this will be the case – influencers will face severe consequences if they fail to comply with the new requirements: up to six months in prison and a €300,000 fine.
“The sector of commercial influence and content creation is not yet taken seriously enough,” wrote Economy and Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire. This is reported by the French news center RFI(Opens in a new tab). He notes that while the industry is “a formidable creative vector” with economic benefits for social media creators, it also suffers from “unclear” or even non-existent rules.
To be clear, this bill is not yet law and it is unclear whether other countries will follow suit. The US, for example, is much more lax with its rules for influencers. The FTC required(Opens in a new tab) that influencers disclose the material connections they have with brands they endorse (i.e. influencers must say if they are paid to post about a brand or product. Those disclosures must be clear, unambiguous, and conspicuous, and they must make those disclosures directly in their endorsements.