The online influencer economy is booming worldwide as brands shift cash from TV to so-called content creators, who promote products and services to millions of young followers on platforms like Instagram, YouTube, TikTok and Snap.
POLITICO reports that For months, French economy chief Bruno Le Maire has angrily pointed out scams and misleading ads promoted by reality TV stars and their ilk on social media. Now, a political agreement on the issue — between President Emmanuel Macron’s Renaissance party and Socialists in parliament — promises to regulate the scandal-ridden sector as soon as the spring.
Along with traditional luxury goods like cars and clothes, influencers also flog a host of questionable products, like diet pills, plastic surgery and cryptocurrencies. Among the incidents to hit the French influencer ecosystem are a high-profile feud between influencer agent Magali Berdah and controversial rapper Boobaover accusations of scams, and reality TV superstar Nabilla Benattia-Vergara — called France’s version of Kim Kardashian — getting slapped with a €20,000 fine for promoting bitcoin without disclosing to her 3.6 million Snap followers that a trading platform had paid her to do so.
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