Schiffrin recommends disclosure, labeling, and training standards

And so a lot of what I'm seeing globally is disclosure and labeling of influencer content.

And that has begun to attract the attention of regulators in the U.S.

And overseas.

I think that there's, given the amount of online violence and physical threats in the real world to journalists and influencers, I think that there's a fear of naming who the influencers are, for example, in the signal group.

But I think we need to weigh that against the pollution of the information ecosystem and the mistrust created when audiences are not aware of the alliances or the agendas of the people that they encounter online.

You know, I have great hope that New York could really be a standard setter for a lot of this.

I think there's no reason we couldn't do sort of world first or standard setting in terms of research.

I mean, in terms of regulation.

So some of the recommendations I made, and I'm very open to revising them if it turns out we don't need them or we already have them, but I would argue for a clear disclosure of relationships with influencers, ideally applying to both paid and unpaid content.

I think standardized disclosure, as just came up, and I was very glad to hear the Campaign Finance Board is thinking about that.

So consistent use of hashtags, maybe at the top of the videos, remain throughout the video, be visible at all times.

And it should be clear, again, what Spain has done of labeling things paid partnership as opposed to...

Collaboration and again some sort of label or disclosure for unpaid but persistent relationships.

That should also be visible.

I certainly think that some kind of regular publication of lists of influencers who work with the city agencies and explain what this consists of.

As I mentioned, it seems to all go through marketing agencies that don't seem to provide information or answer questions.

And another time I hope we can talk about city advertising because, again, Canada, Sweden, UK, there are many countries that have very strong guidelines on city advertising, and I would love us to maybe look at that as well.

I also think that the mayor's office should probably publicize the disclosure rules far more completely

and provide in-house training for city employees, vendors, and marketing agencies that work with influencers, as well as training for influencers, agency staff, employees working with influencers, and vending and marketing firms.

I think it's very important, especially for new hires.

When you have a new administration, you may have people coming in who don't know the rules, so have to kind of make sure they're clear.

Maybe the mayor's office could create a sort of influencer hub the same way the EU has done, and the FTC pages are actually very helpful.

They provide clearly written information and ethical guidelines regarding content and information on regulations that cover influencers and best practices.

And then I have this table of the U.S.

Regulatory landscape and some of the European.

Regulations as I mentioned I'm still working on this so I'm very open for

you know, more information.

Very happy to, you know, bring experts together, convene, and keep discussing all of this.