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Call for Paper Volume 7 Issue 10 October 2026 Submit your research before last 3 days of to publish your research paper in the issue of October.
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Social Media Influencers and Legal Responsibility: Journalism, Advertising and Consumer Protection

Author(s) Dr. K. Rakesh, Dr. Shaik Fayaz, Shraddha Chouhan, Shivanshu Katare
Country India
Abstract Social media influencers now shape what Indians buy, believe and discuss. They sell products, review services, explain the news and sometimes act like reporters. Yet the law was written for newspapers, television channels and manufacturers, and not for a single person with a phone and a million followers. This article asks a simple question: who is legally responsible when an influencer misleads the public? It studies three areas together: journalism, advertising and consumer protection. The method is doctrinal. It reads the Consumer Protection Act, 2019, the 2022 Guidelines on misleading advertisements, the 2023 "Endorsement Know-hows", the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) influencer guidelines, the Information Technology Act, 2000 and the rules under it, and relevant court decisions. It also uses published ASCI complaint data, with charts and a liability flowchart, to show how often influencers break the rules and how the system responds. The article finds that the rules on paper are fairly strong but enforcement is weak, most action is voluntary, penalties are rare, and influencers who report news fall in a gap between press law and advertising law. It ends with practical suggestions: a clear legal definition of "influencer", mandatory disclosure tools on platforms, shared responsibility among brands, agencies, platforms and influencers, a simple registration for news influencers, and public education.
Keywords Social Media Influencers; Misleading Advertisements; Endorsement; Consumer Protection Act, 2019; Disclosure; ASCI; Digital Journalism; Platform Liability.
Published In Volume 7, Issue 10, October 2026
Published On 2026-10-08
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IJLRP's Crossref DOI prefix is
10.70528/IJLRP

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