According to the examine, most YouTube influencers are nonetheless not asserting sponsored offers

This story originally appeared on Engadget

It’s been almost a year since the FTC warned Social media influencers that they are “clear and noticeable” [disclose]”when paid for a post or video. But according to a new Princeton University research, most YouTube and Pinterest influencers still not adding properly Disclaimers of liability for the content created by you.

For the study, the researchers analyzed over 500,000 YouTube videos and over 2.1 million unique Pinterest pins from August to September 2017. They found that 3,472 videos and 18,237 pins in the bunch had affiliate links, but only 10 percent and seven percent, respectively, had written disclosures.

Those who had disclosures weren’t even following FTC guidelines that recommend longer statements than, “Hey, these are affiliate links.” The FTC wants influencers to be very clear in their wording: For example, as Wired said, they can write, “I get a small commission every time you shop through these links.”

According to lead author Arunesh Mathur, his study does not even represent all types of undisclosed affiliate partnerships, as they did not take into account coupon codes and other linkless offers. However, the researchers did not take into account any disclosures that YouTubers mention in the video and that are in languages ​​other than English. However, Mathur is “fairly confident that only a tiny fraction of content creators disclose affiliate links in places other than description.”

Advertising on social media without the proper disclosure has become one big problem in the past few years. Just check out celebrity accounts and you’ll see them promoting products without saying if they’re getting paid for the mail. It’s not the advertising itself that is the problem, but that without the right label, people don’t know if influencers are simply recommending a product they like or if they’re getting paid to praise it.

Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook have labels that influencers can use to indicate sponsorship, but they’re a bit too subtle for the FTC. Things could change as more and more social media superstars emerge. For example, Mathur and his team believe that the answer lies in the browsers: They are planning to develop an extension that will automatically detect and highlight affiliate marketing campaigns.