The surprise is great so much for a few months Meta was almost silent on the issue of “influencers”. On Instagram, a social network belonging to the same group as Facebook, the former reality TV candidates were still living the good life and continuing to promote their fraudulent products. Financial investments, slimming programs or alternative medicine. All this despite the many alerts from Internet users and the investigations that the media have been relaying for several months.
And then, this Wednesday, the situation changed. On Marc Blata’s Instagram account, at the helm of a copy trading scam, all stories related to cryptocurrency and trading were first deleted. Then his account mysteriously disappeared, note Internet users on Twitter. Same thing for the Instagram account of his companion, Nadé Blata and that of Laurent Correia, another reality TV candidate now father of the famous “JLC Family”.
“Our platforms are clear”
This Thursday, Meta finally responded to multiple requests on his Twitter account. “The rules of our platforms are clear and prohibit fraudulent and misleading content intended to mislead our users. We have removed the Instagram account in question, along with a series of others, for violating these rules.” We have contacted Meta France to find out the list of these accounts, which has not yet replied to us.
In addition, influencers are used to reappearing under new accounts or on other social networks. Which would still be likely today.
Politics get involved
The intervention of the Meta group comes a few days after the press conference given by the collective AVI (Help for the Victims of Influencers) on Monday. Two collective complaints, bringing together 88 joint complaints, were announced there. Several charges have been listed against these social media stars, including “organized gang scam” and “breach of trust”.
After a few months of latency, the French authorities and politicians also seem to have taken the measure of the problem. For example, bills have been tabled, notably by the ecologist deputy, Aurélien Taché. “Today, you can do any product placement, through an agency, there is no written contract, we don’t know what happens if the product is not delivered, we does not know if the product is compliant or who is responsible in the event of a problem, ”explained the policy to 20 Minutes.
If this law is adopted, a mandatory notice to report advertising content on content could be introduced. In the event of non-compliance, a prison sentence of six months could see the light of day, accompanied by a fine of up to 75,000 euros.
This Wednesday, MPs Arthur Delaporte (NUPES) and Stéphane Vojetta (Renaissance) also presented “their initiative to regulate influence”. It plans, among other things, to create a legal status for influencers and to prohibit them from promoting certain products. The text will be examined by the Assembly by the end of March.
