What are social networks, who is a creator, how much does a dislike matter: AgCom working on new rules for influencers

Second streaming meeting, between 10 and 12 this morningbetween the representatives of the Communications Guarantor and those of social platforms, law firms, public relations agencies, trade associations, music and publishing to try to define new rules for the so-called influencers.

According to the rumors we have been able to gather, this too (as already the first) it was more of an interlocutory meeting, in which the associations representing the various creators mainly spoke, such as Anica, Assoinfluencer, AiCdc and others, who above all pointed out that the current and partially renewed guidelines (which are these) they would be too generic and would almost prevent us from working at the moment.

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Adv, gifted and supplied, shadow bans and tariffs: minimal guide to influencer marketing

by Emanuele Capone

January 16, 2024

The usual doubt: what is an influencer?

A doubt that has been raised, for example, concerns i creators who have their own company and of which they are testimonials by definition: if they talk about their products, do they have to make it clear that it is advertising communication? Self Martina Strazzer (who is?) wear Amabile jewels, is it advertising? If Chiara Ferragni says the word “Ferragni”which is also a brand, is it advertising?

Another fundamental point, which has been debated for months, is the definition of influencer: among the more than 70 participants in the meeting there are those who say that those who declare themselves this way when opening an account should be, while others believe that they should be established follower or income thresholds, beyond which it falls into the category. However, making it an economic issue would take the problem somewhat outside of AgCom’s scope of intervention.

Speaking of thresholds, this morning it emerged that the million followers that the Guarantor has been talking about for some time would be cumulative, in the sense that the followers added together on the various platforms on which the creator is present contribute to the achievement. Platforms which, from what we have learned, are essentially 4: Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube, while he would not have been contacted no one from Twitter, Pinterest, Reddit or Twitchjust to mention those who perhaps would have had reason to be there.

To all those summoned, AgCom requested an Excel file with a list of creators who have at least 100 thousand followers, 2% engagement and 24 contents published in a year, from which to calculate the list of those affected by the new rules: to date, as far as Italian Tech knows, only TikTok has responded to the request

Will the July deadline be met?

This is perhaps one of the reasons why the works they are unlikely to end at the beginning of July, as announced several times and as required by law: the delays in having the requested material, the fact that this material is constantly updated (because popularity on social media can become enormous even in just 3 weeks) and the high number of people called to the table, with even influencers who connect on a personal basis and perhaps want to have their say even though there is already an association that represents them, they do nothing but consume time available. Which isn’t much already.

“It would help a dashboard with data that updates in real time and to which those from AgCom can have access – a source close to the work told us – But it would be useful for all the platforms, which are different from each other and do not all work in the same way”. And maybe they aren’t even all of them willing to provide access to their data.

This and other things will probably be talked about not next week but in the week after that (the last one in March), in which the various participants should be divided into various subgroups to address specific issues. How to understand if the button I don’t like (among other things only present on YouTube and TikTok) has the same value as the button I like and it counts as an interaction or it doesn’t count. Why, yes: this morning we also talked about this.

@capoema