The influencer industry needs proper regulation to build trust and credibility

Research fellow for The Australia Institute – Centre for Responsible Technology, Jordan Guiao, takes an unfiltered look at social media scandal.

For every influencer on social media trying to do the right thing being transparent about paid promotions, staying on brand and posting high-quality content – there’s another who’s making themselves look bad, mostly by airing dumb views and sharing misinformation.

Misinformation is a huge issue online, and throughout the pandemic we’ve seen an escalation in ill-informed views around anti-vax sentiment, anti-lockdown protests and conspiracy theories around COVID.

A smattering of social media influencers have outed themselves as conspiracy theorists who undermine public health advice, including ‘TikTok guy’ Jon-Bernard Fairouz, and Byron Bay ‘artist’ Sally Mustang.

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