ASCI investigated 719 complaints against social media influencers in 2021

The Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI), India’s ad land guardian, investigated 719 social media posts last year from June to December; 577 (80 per cent) influencers voluntarily amended/ withdrew their posts.

Out of the remaining 142 complaints, 121 were upheld by ASCI's Consumer Complaints Council and influencers were asked to withdraw or modify their posts. In all, ASCI recommendations received 86 per cent compliance from influencers.

This was part of ASCI’s new mandate to watch over India’s burgeoning social media influencer space. To make sure influencer marketing does not mislead viewers, the council rolled out the ‘Guidelines for Influencer Advertising in Digital Media’ that came into effect in June 2021.

The ads without disclosures fell predominantly under four categories :

Fashion & Lifestyle (29%)

Cosmetic (19%)

Food & Beverage (13%)

Personal Care (12%)

ASCI observed three major violations:

• Absence of disclosures

• Inconsistency of disclosure: for example, in Instagram stories, while the first story may have the disclosure, the ones after that did not have a disclosure.

• Incorrect disclosure placement: the disclosure labels were not placed in a manner that was easily visible to the audience, for example, the viewer had to scroll down/click read more to see the disclosure.

ASCI has released a list of those who failed to comply with disclosure labels on the first instance and subsequent routine checks.