Indecopi Reports Covert Influencer Advertising About Gambling

Indecopi continues with the intervention to the different levels of society. In cyberspace, social media regulation encompasses not only digital media and mobile applications, but also social media. influencers They upload daily content, for example, to their stories. These users are warned that, if they are engraved with a brand or write about it, they must advertise it as such..

Even apps like Instagram They allow to facilitate the warning: there is a button to add the word “in collaboration”, in addition to the already known use of the hashtag (the sign of the numeral followed by a phrase). However, cases such as Josi Martinez, Samahara Lobaton and Gianella Marquina were publicized for their undercover advertising of internet gambling.. As an immediate response, Indecopi has already reported the cases.

In the following note, review the fault that these three personalities have committed, who together add up to more than 2 million followers.

Josi Martínez case

The journalist Alejandra Garboza compiled the registered cases on her Twitter account. The first is from Josi Martínez. In no publication, which by format disappears in 24 hours, does it specify that what it states is, in fact, advertising.

In the images, Josi opens the question box and one of the users asks her: “How much do you earn?” The influencer responds: “One always has to look for various ways to generate money, my queens, and I have just won more with the bets that some professionals are sending me”. It is a profile that shares your lifestyle and that invites its followers to replicate it, to a certain extent.

After posting that answer they asked him to explain about sports betting. Martínez wrote: “Too easy. Literally, they put you in a Telegram group where there is someone like a witch who gives you forecasts. I copy them how it has to be and earn money”.

He was true to his word: in the following story he answered another question about the maximum amount he has reached with bets. Josi said he started with $ 50 and “took” 600 in “one week.” At no time did he notice the advertising content that, with evidence, he disseminated.

Caso Samahara Lobaton

Melissa Klug’s daughter was another of the reported cases.

Gianella Marquina case

Finally, another of Melissa Klug’s daughters, the eldest of them, Gianella, also did not warn about the advertising content that she spread. He passed it off, as in the other cases, as a kind of remote work gain.

So far, Indecopi, through its social networks, has indicated that the cases have already been reported. They are expected to take action on the matter.

Similar precedent: case of Spain

In February 2021, dozens of Spanish influencers promoted a Telegram gambling channel through their Instagram accounts, a case similar to the one previously exposed. Those involved assured that their main source of income is sports games of chance. The offending group assured that they earned 1,400 euros in one afternoon thanks to an initial investment of 30 euros.

The Spanish Advertising Jury ruled a few days later: “The publications of these influencers, in addition to coinciding in time, all followed the same scheme: open publications in which questions can be asked, respond to them with identical expressions, dealing with questions such as how much income is obtained”.

To date, most influencers have not received any sanction. The decision of the Advertising Jury was motivated by a claim from the Communication User Association against the five influencers who participated in the last campaign: Marina Yers, Jesús Sánchez Seda, Paula García Maciá and Genissa Gonzáles, who refused to participate in the process. The only one who chose to participate was Diego Pérez (‘James Lover’ on Instagram). The agency issued a resolution urging it to “cease and not repeat the claimed advertising.” With the rest of the initial stakeholders, the entity could only issue non-binding opinions.