Vaping posts endorsed by celebrities to be banned from Instagram
‘Facebook’s announcement is welcome. They now need to live up to this commitment’
CELEBRITIES and influencers have been banned from promoting vapes on Instagram in the wake of a Daily Telegraph investigation.
The social media giant announced yesterday it will be prohibiting sponsored posts showing people using or promoting tobacco products, starting next year. It comes after this newspaper’s investigation earlier this year revealed children as young as 13 were being shown posts featuring cartoon and fizzy drink-themed vape products via Instagram’s Explore feature.
Yesterday, the Advertising Standards Authority announced it would ban vape companies from advertising publicly on Instagram following an investigation into e-cigarette posts.
The landmark ruling was made after the watchdog found British American Tobacco and other vape sellers had posted promotional material on Instagram about vapes, using celebrities such as the singer Lily Allen, which breached UK advertising rules.
Instagram’s decision was welcomed by campaigners, but they warned that the social media company, which is owned by Facebook, needed to enforce the new policy rigorously to prevent children from being exposed to vape advertising.
Deborah Arnott, chief executive of the UK anti-smoking charity ASH, said:
“Even though internet ads for e-cigarettes are banned in the UK, young people in England are just as likely to say they’ve seen online ads as they are in the US, where such ads are legal. More than a third think e-cig ads are targeted at non-smokers.
“Facebook’s announcement that all sponsored vape and nicotine posts will be banned across their platforms is welcome. They now need to live up to this commitment, and we’ll be watching closely to see that they do.”
Instagram already bans adverts for tobacco products. However, in recent years there has been an explosion in “sponsored” posts for vapes. These generally involve e-cigarette companies paying vape ‘influencers’ – people with a large following through filming vape smoke tricks – to promote their products in Instagram posts.
Earlier this year, The Telegraph found that vape images and sponsored posts were being promoted into the feeds of children too young to use them via Instagram’s Explore feed, which shows users posts from accounts they don’t follow.
A spokesman for Facebook said the ban would apply across both social media sites. He added: “We do not allow adverts that promote the sale or use of tobacco or electronic cigarettes.
“Earlier this year, we updated our policy to restrict organic content that depicts the sale or purchase of tobacco products to over-18s.
“We are currently updating our branded content policies to no longer allow paid promotions of these products, too.”
Yesterday, Facebook also announced it was tightening rules on sponsored posts for alcohol and diet supplements, but stopped short of an outright ban.