FTC publishes guide to help influencers properly endorse products

The feds have put Instagram’s glitterati on notice.

The Federal Trade Commission has published a no-nonsense guide to help social-media influencers follow its rules governing product endorsements.

The eight-page document, released last week, sums up the agency’s existing guidelines for how and when bigshot online personalities should disclose their relationships with companies that sponsor them.

The briefing, titled “Disclosures 101 for Social Media Influencers,” advises users to reveal when brands pay them or give them free products or services. Influencers should make those disclosures in ways that are “hard to miss” and can’t assume their followers know about their relationships with companies, the guide says.

“Tell people about your brand relationship along with your endorsement — not in your profile, not in a bunch of hashtags,” FTC attorney Amber Lee says in a video accompanying the briefing.

The commission’s lax enforcement of endorsement rules drew criticism after two documentaries released earlier this year detailed the infamous 2017 Fyre Festival fiasco.

Convicted fraudster Billy McFarland reportedly paid famous Instagram models to promote his high-end music festival on their pages before it devolved into chaos.

The trade commission has sent warning letters to influencers over alleged violations of its rules, but the agency could send a stronger message, experts have said.

“The Kardashian family or high-profile fashion bloggers being heavily sanctioned would likely deter other influencers from violating FTC guidelines in the future because of monetary penalties and harm to reputation.,” Matt Higgins of the University of Cincinnati Law Review wrote in March.

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