Your Favorite Influencers Might Not Be Admitting When Their Content Is Paid For
The European Union screened a large selection of social media posts from influencers and found something that is very surprising. 97% of the influencers that their screening covered have published sponsored posts before, but a mere 20% of them did the right thing and admitted that it was sponsored content.
Some influencers also straddle the line, by using wording like “collaboration”, “partnership”, and “thanks to the partner brand”, instead of just clicking the option that lets you instantly label a video or post as a paid partnership.
While it might be helpful to know the identities of influencers who are being a bit shady with their paid content disclosure, the study didn’t give out any names. However, it was established that 358 out of the total 576 influencers were flagged for further investigation. This way, the influencers don’t need to get any negative publicity, and they can do better in following regulations.
Think Twice Before You Click “Purchase”
Before you get that gadget that an influencer claims cured their chronic back pain and changed their life, you want to have a good idea whether that content was paid for by the gadget’s manufacturer or not. The expectation was that it would be clearly disclosed when this is the case, but the study has shown otherwise.
Since it’s hard to know whether influencers you’re meant to trust are being honest or not, the best angle to take is to do your due diligence on the product. Don’t take one person’s word for it — instead, check Google, YouTube, and other posts on the same platform so that you can make an informed decision.
And just so you know, nearly 20% of all sampled influencers had promoted “unhealthy and hazardous activities” such as gambling, cryptocurrency trading, alcohol, and so on.
Do We Disclose All Our Sponsored Content? You Bet!
So, in light of this, you might be asking: how can you trust us over at Talk Android? Perhaps some of our device reviews are only so glowing because we refuse to disclose that we were paid handsomely for them, right?
Well, you can be at peace. We can assure you that we are entirely independent of any Android manufacturers, and any opinions you see on Talk Android are those of the respective journalists. When content is sponsored, it is clearly stated, but otherwise, we do not take payments of any kind to influence our opinions, and you can bet on that!
If you want to know more about the ethics that guide our coverage here at Talk Android, you can take a good read through our Ethics Statement.
