Turkey put influencers under scrutiny - fines amounting to 6.4 million Turkish liras liras (about 170,000 euros) were awarded to 16 figures popular in social networks because of products advertised by them, the Turkish private television station NTV reported, as quoted by BTA.
The Ministry of Commerce's Advertising Council conducts inspections of social media ads, which led to the imposition of fines totaling 6.4 million Turkish lira on five influencers last year and 11 in the first half of this year.
p>
After the Council was tasked with policing the activities of "social media influencers" - the so-called influencers, a project was launched in March 2022 to verify social media ads using artificial intelligence. Thanks to the project, the percentage of cases in which it was not clearly and comprehensibly stated that the publications of the influencers constituted advertising decreased from 57 percent to 11 percent, the television stated.
In the cases in which the Council found a violation, the necessary administrative sanctions were imposed, and since the beginning of the year, a total of 50 social network profiles have been sanctioned, which violated the legislation with their advertisements. For comparison, 77 profiles were sanctioned in the whole of last year.
The amount of the administrative fine imposed on an influencer who advertised in violation of the law was 347 thousand Turkish liras (9,140 euros) last year, and in 2024 it became 550 thousand Turkish liras (14,500 euros).< /p>