Italy’s market competition regulator has launched an investigation into Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:FB) over concerns about inadequately signposted branded content on Instagram.
The Italian Competition Authority said on Friday that users on the Instagram platform are not verified and that interactions such as likes and follows are not authenticated to ensure against fake products and influencer followers.
The competition watchdog will examine how branded content is marketed to viewers.
It will review how promotional content is labelled and used on the social media platform.
In a statement on Friday, the Italian watchdog said that Meta did not adopt adequate initiatives to address the conduct of influencers that market sponsored products and are accused to have used fake followers.
Meta allegedly failed to adopt suitable measures to prevent potentially misleading messaging.
The watchdog claims the platform did not provide adequate information on the use of the tool to mark branded content, particularly in relation to promotional content.