New Norwegian Law: Social Media Influencers Must Label Retouched Photos
In June, the new law successfully passed as an amendment to the country’s 2009 Marketing Act. This means that sharing retouched photos without acknowledgement on platforms like Tok-Tok and Instagram are now considered illegal. Now, the country waits for their King to reveal when the latest rule will come into effect.
This new rule has come at a time when it will come in most helpful when it comes to improving mental health concerns caused by ‘like’ and ‘follower’ count fuelled social media platforms like Instagram and Tok-Tok.
The Norwegian Ministry has made these amendments to clearly state that advertisements that feature any kind of alterations to the body’s shape, size or skin tone will need to be marked using a standardized label made available by the government.
Norwegian influencers and celebrities will be most impacted by this new law who utilise social media to promote paid advertisement posts. In these cases, the use of filters must be declared and those who fail to do so should expect to face heavy fines and worse!
This is a positive change in our digital world, making it a safer and more welcoming place for all users. Countless support groups and legislators worldwide have made it clear that Instagram and Facebook are key drivers in the decline in mental health for younger audiences who statistically, take the app more seriously than older age groups. In 2017, the UK Royal Society for Public Health conducted a report that found that Instagram was detrimental to young people’s mental health.
According to the daily Norwegian newspaper Verdens Gang, the new legislation has been shown huge support from many Norway influencer communities. Do you think Norway should take this law further by extending it to cover all types of triggering content on social media, not just filtered images?