French Parliament to Vote on Influencer Regulation

The French Parliament will vote on a law to regulate social media influencers today.

The law aims to improve transparency around the advertisements social media influencers take part in and unsure non-EU influencers follow French and EU law in the promotion of certain products. The law comes amid increasing conflicts between US Social Media Giants and the EU, with Facebook’s parent company Meta recently being fined more than 1 billion euros for mishandling data.

Tighter regulation overall in the tech sector is likely to continue within the EU with regulations involving AI—particularly newly developed ChatGPT—likely expanding. The new law is likely to pass today and receive support from the EU as part of the bloc’s ongoing disputes with tech companies. While companies and influencers affected by the new laws may criticize the legislation, they are likely to comply with any new requirements in exchange for maintaining market access to the EU. In the longer-term, EU regulations and the struggle of non-EU based companies to comply with them may lead to a European company filling the gap such as Mastodon— considered an alternative to Twitter following Elon Musk’s purchase of the platform.