An important step forward.
Instagram has banned influencers from making “miraculous claims” about weight loss products.
The social media platform has introduced new parameters to ensure that the promotion and sale of weight loss products online is regulated.
The new rules mean that users under the age of 18 will also be banned from seeing posts promoting weight loss products that have a price fixed on them.
This includes posts promoting diet pills, appetite-suppressing lollipops, and detox teas.
Jameela Jamil told ELLE that she was delighted by the platform’s changes. She also said that it was refreshing to see a company as influential as Instagram taking a stand against these kinds of promotions.
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“It sets the tone that this is not ok in our society,” she said.
“These people are selling hair growth gummies, but wearing extensions or photoshopping themselves to look slimmer and selling a weight loss shake.
“There are so many lies being told and we’ve accepted that as a cultural norm.”
The move will ensure that no user under the age of 18 will be presented with a #ad for a weight loss product with a price fixed to it.
It will also crack down on influencers making virtually impossible claims about such products, ie: saying that they lost 10lbs from drinking a detox tea when, in fact, they did not.
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This comes after Jamil launched a petition to stop “celebrities promoting toxic diet products on social media.”
“Quick-fix weight loss is never the answer and the risks far outweigh the benefits,” she wrote.
“If it sounds too good to be true, then it probably is. Celebrities who promote and endorse weight loss aids for payment, do so because brands have realised how influential their posts are with young people.
“We put the health risks on cigarettes and all drugs, and yet nobody is forced to do the same with these products, in spite of thousands of medical professionals speaking out about the harm and pseudo-science of it all.”
The petition has received almost 250,000 signatures.
Instagram began rolling out their new parameters yesterday.
