Rauh calls for FTC-style influencer disclosure in city advertising contracts
Rauh says paid government advertising including influencer content must be publicly disclosed, that FTC rules requiring clear and conspicuous disclosure of paid relationships should be incorporated into city advertising contracts with a uniform citywide standard, and that unpaid influencer engagement is fine but should not come at the expense of reporter access.
And then on the second piece, the idea of paid government advertising, including influencer content, it needs to be publicly disclosed.
Others have mentioned the Federal Trade Commission has rules establishing influencers to clearly and conspicuously disclose paid relationships.
That is needed here, and we believe that that requirement should be incorporated into the city's advertising contracts
and that there should be a uniform citywide standard rather than leaving this up to individual agencies or contractors.
There's more details on both in my written testimony.
But finally, on the question of unpaid influencers, we want to make it clear that there is nothing inherently wrong with City Hall communicating its actions, programs, or achievements to unpaid influencers.
Social media content creators are now a permanent part of the communications landscape.
We know elected officials will continue to use them to communicate with the public.
We want to note that that engagement should not come at the expense of reporter access, press scrutiny, as we are seeing in Washington, D.C.,
and City Hall should not be providing influencers with any confidential information or privileged access to information in exchange for favorable coverage.
But we believe the city's existing ethic laws address.
those concerns.
Thank you very much.
Next.