Sponsored Posts On Instagram Illegal? Company Asks Kardashians, Other Celebs To Change Ad Posting

Months after the Federal Trade Commission warned celebrities who use Instagram to promote or advertise certain labels, the app has come up with a new tool for celebs and brands to use to mark advertisements clearly.

After examining the top 50 celebrities on Instagram, Mediakix found 93 percent of sponsored posts from celebrities may not comply with FTC regulations. Those celebrities with massive followings are posting items from long-term sponsors, items they got for free or items they were paid to post. But many of the posts were not clearly marked as advertisements and didn’t meet the commission’s standards.

Read: Instagram Celebs Are Still Failing To Properly Label 93% Of Ad-Sponsored Posts

The regulations stipulate if there is a “material connection” between the celeb endorsing a product and the advertiser, that must be made clear in writing, a press release said. Additionally, the warning the FTC sent to endorsers in the form of a letter said tags, hashtags and links are easy for viewers to skip over and don’t count as clear communication of the advertiser/marketer and endorser relationship.

Ads for products or brands that sponsor celebrities can be found on most popular pages in the app. The Kardashians and Jenners are frequently posting about certain products with “#ad” stuck at the end of the caption.

Instagram’s plan to combat this is to add new features to the app. The new additions will roll out over the next few weeks, so you should start noticing them on posts fairly soon. “As more and more partnerships form on Instagram, it's important to ensure the community is able to easily recognize when someone they follow is paid to post content,” an announcement from Instagram on the company’s business blog said Wednesday.

Read: Kendall, Kylie Jenner Just Got Dissed By P. Diddy In This Epic Instagram Move

These new features will come in the form of “Paid partnership with” tags featured on posts and stories. These will help users clarify that their posts are made in partnership with a brand, and clarify for viewers that the post was put up in return for money or goods or as part of a paid contract.

This tag used in stories or on posts will help users and businesses with “maintaining authenticity across the board,” Instagram said. The partners involved in using the tag will be able to see Insights on the post to track how the posts and stories do in the app and what the engagement levels on the post are.

Instagram also said this new tagging system is just the first step in ensuring transparency with paid partnerships that populate the app. The business blog post also said in the coming months, Instagram would be launching an “official policy and enforcement” to ensure that partnerships on the app are being represented in a fully transparent way.