Over 108,000 Social Media Hidden Advertising Cases Monitored Amid Deceptive Reviews

[Economy 365]

Social media hidden advertisements, which disguise sponsored promotions as genuine personal purchases, remain rampant.

The Fair Trade Commission (FTC) revealed that a total of 108,709 posts were monitored on suspicion of hidden advertising over the past five years.

The number of monitored posts stood at around 17,000 in 2021, and 22,675 posts were placed under monitoring last year.

Last year, the other services sector, including restaurants and hair salons, accounted for the highest share at 25.5%, followed by clothing and personal items, and health and hygiene products.

The FTC is working to identify posts that received economic compensation such as advertising fees without disclosing that they are advertisements, and is inducing their deletion.

Recently, monitoring targets have also been expanded to include advertisements where AI-generated virtual humans recommend products without clearly indicating that they are virtual figures or that a paid partnership is involved.

*This article was produced with AI audio.
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.