A Shift in the Tides? The Welcomed Proposal of Harshened FTC Guidelines for Social Media Reviews and Advertising

With the rise in social media use among individuals across the world, businesses have learned that using those platforms for marketing has led to great success. As advertising has crept into every relevant social media platform, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) has fallen behind in enforcing its guidelines surrounding deceptive advertisements and disclosures of material connections. Without enforcement, social media users are at risk of falling for deceptive reviews and undisclosed endorsements when purchasing products based on advertisements with undisclosed material connections.The newest social media that took the world by storm, TikTok, has shown just how effective marketing on social media can be, however, the policy surrounding such advertising is drastically falling behind. Recently, the Federal Trade Commission has switched gears, with the proposal of new rulemaking to determine whether civil penalties are needed to help combat the growing use of deceptive reviews and endorsements.This comment shows the prevalence of marketing on TikTok, with a deeper look into a new marketing program, Bounty, and the consequences that both platforms could face with FTC’s newly proposed rules on non-compliant advertisements. This article examines the policy of the FTC surrounding social media and marketing, as well as the preexisting disclosure policies in place by TikTok and Bounty. Through such examination, the author found preexisting violations on the part of TikTok and Bounty, that could lead to future penalties under the FTC’s pre-existing and proposed guidelines against non-disclosure of advertisements. This comment recommends stricter advertising policies for both TikTok and Bounty and encourages the FTC to continue its crackdown surrounding deceptive reviews and nondisclosures