UAE council members call for influencer crackdown

Members of the UAE’s Federal National Council have called for the government to crackdown on social media influencers, according to reports.

At a debate on Tuesday, members voiced concerns that influencers were sharing content that was not inline with the country’s values and ethics and endorsing products for payment without declaring it, The National reported.

This was despite a requirement for paid content to be declared under a new electronic media launched by the UAE’s National Media Council at the end of February.

Read: UAE issue new regulation for influencers, e-commerce, news sites

The new law also makes it mandatory for social media influencers to acquire a licence by the end of June or face a fine of up to Dhs5,000 ($1,361) and the shutdown of their account.

Ras Al Khaimah member Naama Al Sharhan said the new regulations did not go far enough, according to the publication.

“It has not been activated yet in a way for people to understand that when you are getting paid to endorse a product, you must say so. What if I go use the face cream you were pretending to be using and my skin gets irritated?,” she was quoted as saying.

Al Sharhan also called for a law governing influencers’ activities in general, not just their paid posts.

“We don’t want people promoting nonsense, like when a fashionista posts footage of herself lying down… what is this?”

She asked what the National Media Council’s plan was to “stem the negative effect of social media”.

National Media Council chairman Sultan Al Jaber responded that the majority of influencers had a positive impact on society.

“I don’t want to call them negative, they are just not aware,” he was quoted as saying.

Dubai member Hamad Al Rahoomi called for influencers to be responsible when posting content as children were among their followers.

However, he suggested the government should not be “controlling people’s lives”.