The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) Select Committee recently launched an inquiry to examine influencers' power on social media and how influencer culture operates. The inquiry will also consider the lack of regulation on the promotion of products or services, aside from the existing policies of individual platforms. An Advertising Standards Authority investigation found that more than three-quarters of influencers "buried their disclosures within their posts".
Further, the inquiry will assess the effect of influencers on media and popular culture and the positive role that they can play (eg, in raising awareness for a campaign which addresses vaccine hesitancy among people from ethnic minority backgrounds).
The DCMS Select Committee invites participants to comment on:
- how they would define 'influencers' and 'influencer culture' and whether these are new phenomena;
- whether influencing has affected popular culture and, if so, how society and culture have changed as a result;
- whether influencers should be predominantly associated with advertising and consumerism and, if not, what other roles influencers fulfil online;
- how tech companies encourage or disrupt influencing activities; and
- how aware users are of the arrangements between influencers and advertisers and whether policymakers, tech companies, influencers and advertisers should do more to ensure that such arrangements are transparent.
On the operation and effect of influencer culture, DCMS Select Committee Chair Julian Knight stated as follows:
There's concern that while influencers are useful to advertisers in reaching the right markets on social media, there is a lack of transparency around the promotion of products or services. We'll be looking at whether there's a need for tighter regulation in this area and what form that might take.
Participants should make written submissions by 7 May 2021.
