Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps her Department is taking to help tackle undisclosed advertising on social media platforms.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) is the independent regulator for advertising in the UK and enforces the Advertising Codes. The Codes require that paid advertising content must be recognisable as such. The Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers (DMCC) Act 2024 also prohibits unfair commercial practices involving misleading actions or misleading omissions within advertisements. Influencers are required to disclose when they are advertising under both the CAP code and consumer law.

The Influencer Marketing Code of Conduct, co-owned by the Incorporated Society of British Advertisers (ISBA) and the Influencer Marketing Trade Body (IMBT), was launched in 2021 to improve standards in this area of advertising. The Code contains requirements for brands working with influencers, the agencies who represent them, and the influencers themselves, and includes a dedicated section on disclosure. An Influencer Marketing Working Group, established as part of the Government’s Online Advertising Taskforce, has helped provide new standards to be incorporated into the fourth iteration of the Code. This was launched in November 2024, and the group is working to encourage further take-up.