The Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) said on Thursday it has processed 2,767 complaints against influencers since it came up with its guidelines in May 2021

According to its findings, more than half of the violations were found on Meta-owned Instagram, followed by YouTube which contributed a third of them, the self-regulatory organisation for the advertising industry said.

The body said modifications were needed in over 90% of the cases.

“The Central Consumer Protection Authorities also require disclosure of material connection between brands and influencers. Hence, non-disclosures are potential violations of the law,” the body’s chief executive and secretary general Manisha Kapoor told news agency PTI.

In FY22, the total violations stood at 1,592, with virtual digital assets such as bitcoins topping with nearly 24%, and followed closely by personal care category which accounted for 23%.

In the first nine months of FY23, there were 1,175 complaints received with personal care category, followed by food and beverage at 16%.

Instagram accounted for 53% of the violations in FY22, which rose to 65% in the first nine months of FY23, while in the case of YouTube, this declined from 37.8% to 27%. The body also conducted a survey of 820 respondents, which found 79% of them saying they trust influencers and 90% saying they have made purchases based on influencer endorsements.

The survey said transparency and honesty about brand associations is the number one reason for influencer trust, followed by relatable lifestyle and content.

Disclosure norms for influencers

ET reported last month that social media influencers will soon have to mandatorily disclose sponsored posts as paid content if there is a material connection between them and a brand, failing which, they can be prohibited from publishing for six months and face a penalty of Rs 10 lakh and upto Rs 50 lakh for repeated offence, according to the new social media influencer guidelines published by the government.

The association with advertisers should be displayed in a “hard to miss” format, said Rohit Kumar Singh, secretary, ministry of consumer affairs, while releasing the guidelines.

Disclosures should be made in the language same as the promotion, should be superimposed over the image enough for viewers to notice, should be placed in the video and not just in the description, and should not be mixed with a group of hashtags or links, said Nidhi Khare, additional secretary, ministry of consumer affairs.

Influencers or celebrities should be able to substantiate the claims made by them in promotions, according to the guidelines.

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