France: towards a law to regulate influencers on social networks

Account of an influencer on Instagram (Illustrative image). dpa/picture alliance via Getty I - picture alliance

Text by: RFI Follow

2 min

Influencers will soon be governed by a law. The France is taking up this thorny issue after many cases of fraud or abuse. It will no longer be possible to do anything and everything during product placements or other hidden advertisements. The objective of this text is to clarify the obligations that the 150,000 French influencers must respect.

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Prohibition to promote cosmetic surgery, obligation to apply the same rules on networks as for conventional advertising... In the influencer sector, which has experienced many abuses and many victims, it will be necessary to punish.

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When you are touted a product, when you place a product without indicating that you are funded by a brand, it is not honest. When you are touted the qualities of a product that it does not have, it is called fraud. I think we need to punish abuses to protect influencers and protect consumers," explains Bruno le Maire, the Minister of Economy and Finance.

I want to tell the French that we will be there to protect them.
I want to tell influencers who don't respect the law, that we won't let anything pass by. No drift, no abuse.

— Bruno Le Maire (@BrunoLeMaire) March 24, 2023

Reporting and control brigade

A reporting system will be put in place. There will also be the strengthening of controls with the creation of a brigade in Bercy. These solutions are effective, according to Socialist MP Arthur Delaporte, who initiated the bill. "Today, it's the law of the jungle on social networks and in particular, in influence. This law of the jungle, in six months, it will be over because Parliament will have seized in a transpartisan way to regulate a sector that, moreover, requires it, "he assures.

The request was made in particular by Carine Fernandez, president of the Union des métiers de l'influence et des créateurs de contenu. Account suspensions of outlaw influencers will also be facilitated. The sanction and especially "clarification", insists the Ministry of the Economy, which does not want to slow down the development of this sector.

► READ ALSO: French influencers support the mobilization against the pension reform

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