Ministry of Commerce and Industry (MoCI) is considering establishing regulations for advertising on social media, in a move to reorganize the advertising market by targeting companies and brands who are advertisers rather than granting licenses to fashionistas, Al Rai reported. The ministry has so far refused to grant a license to fashionistas who make money off promoting businesses, their products and other goods online via their social media platform.
Sources revealed that MoCI in coordination with the Municipality and other parties are planning to set up regulations for companies and commercial businesses who pay fashionistas for promoting and advertising their products.
These regulations will create a mechanism for online influencers to be paid via a banking system, such as checks approved by banks or certified online transfers to verify the transfer of funds, and then providing validation of the authenticity of these funds.
The sources pointed out that this method will also regulate the accounts of companies and commercial entities who provide payment to online influencers. The details will be mentioned in the advertising revenues of social media influencers and will be recorded in the budgets of companies and businesses. Therefore, the financial details of Fashionistas can be easily checked in the event she or he is audited in the future, especially if they are under scrutiny on charges related to suspicions of money laundering. The investigation authorities can verify the safety and accuracy of the advertising financial information, which are detailed and compare them to the size of the funds that the person is accused of money laundering.
The sources said to the daily that MoCI understands the difficulty of introducing new commercial licenses for Fashionistas, and has chosen a quicker way to regulate this sector by establishing controls for companies and commercial businesses subject to the Ministry’s control. This will facilitate the management of registration books and invoices for payments to social media influencers just as it is done with other ads that are recorded in corporate budgets.