An Instagram influencer, who stopped her car midway on an elevated road on a highway to make a reel, has been fined Rs 17,000 for violating road safety norms. The incident comes soon after the Centre made headway to make social media influencers responsible for their ads.
The Ghaziabad highway video of social media influencer, identified as Vaishali Chaudhary Khutail, who has 6,52,000 followers on Instagram, has gone viral on social media.
In the video, she could be seen stopping her car midway on an elevated road on a highway. She is then seen walking on the roadside and striking several poses as other vehicles pass by, the video shows.
The Ghaziabad Police took note of the video after it went viral on the social media platform.
"Charges were registered at Sahibabad police station in connection with the viral video on social media in which a girl could be seen making a reel on an elevated road. The girl's vehicle has been challaned Rs 17,000," the Ghaziabad police said in a tweet while sharing the copy of the challan.
New curbs on social media influencers
The incident came to light amid the government's move to rein in social media influencers who indulge in proxy brand promotion or paid promotions without divulging this to their followers about it with fines of up to Rs 50 lakh.
According to sources privy to developments, the Consumer Affairs Ministry is coming up with guid on December 24, under which they would have to disclose to their followers by putting up disclaimers if they indulge in promotion of any particular product or brand and have been paid for doing so, through their videos or posts on any such platforms.
Consumer Protection
After the issuance of these guidelines, if such influencers fail to divulge to their followers that they have indulged in proxy paid promotion through their platforms, then a complaint against them can be made to the Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA), and a fine of up to Rs 50 lakh can be imposed on them by it.
Sources said that often social media influencers indulge in proxy paid promotions through their videos and comments on social media platforms and indirectly influence their followers into using or consuming a particular product, through their views.
As of now there are no guidelines to curb this kind of proxy promotions by social media influencers, therefore now the government has come up with rules to prevent this practice. These guidelines would be applicable on financial influencers also, sources added.
(With inputs from IANS)
