PARIS — Love them or hate them, filters have become a ubiquitous feature of contemporary social media content. Their goal: Make people look different from their real-life appearance — often so subtly it appears natural.
Now, a new French legislative bill could force influencers to notify their audience when they apply filters to photos and videos, possibly changing the calculation around the use of such filters.
“This is how the sector will become more ethical,” French lawmaker Arthur Delaporte, who helped introduce the bill, said in an interview.
The bill — which was adopted by France’s National Assembly last week but still a Senate vote before it can become law — is part of a broader regulatory crackdown on the influencer industry by French authorities. The legislation says it is aimed at “controlling commercial influence and combating abuse by influencers on social networks,” and it also would ban the paid promotion of cosmetic surgery and certain financial products.
The bill would not only apply to influencers in France, but also would impose some requirements on influencers abroad seeking to reach a French audience.
If it became law, it would be the most comprehensive piece of legislation regulating the influencing industry, said Delaporte. “The text is pioneering,” he added.
Influencers around the world have long operated in a legislative gray zone, leading to abuse and scandals. Last year, Kim Kardashian settled with the Securities and Exchange Commission after the SEC said she promoted a cryptocurrency without disclosing that she had been paid to do so. As influencers become more powerful, governments around the world are taking a closer look at their practices.
The French bill would for the first time define an “influencer” in law as any person who uses their notoriety to share content digitally that directly or indirectly promotes “goods, services, or any cause” in exchange for financial or in kind compensation above a certain threshold.
Anyone falling under that definition would be required to disclose in “clear, legible and identifiable” ways and “during the entire promotion” whether they were being paid to advertise goods, services or causes. The bill clarifies that laws for advertisers also apply to influencers.
It will go to the Senate for a vote in May. If both chambers reconcile their versions of the text and adopt it, it can become law.
Under the proposed rules, photos and videos that have been “modified by image processing software” would need to be published with the label “edited image.” This includes filtered images when the filter is used “to refine or thicken the silhouette” — making the subject look thinner or bigger — or “to modify the appearance of the face.” Violations of this rule would be punishable by six months’ imprisonment and a fine of 300,000 euros ($328,000).
French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said in an interview with local media that influencers should be subject to the same rules as traditional media outlets. The internet, he said, “is not the Wild West.”
Authorities say the bill also will benefit influencers, clarifying their rights and obligations under French law.
Gaelle Prudencio, a French influencer who promotes body positivity and owns a plus-size clothing brand, said in an interview that she is in favor of the bill because it recognizes that influencing is a real job and that it protects consumers.
Prudencio said she believes that the abundance of heavily edited images on social media can harm young people who have not yet formed their own identities. Teenagers especially can “completely lose sight of reality and tomorrow find themselves making an appointment with a surgeon to perform this or that [cosmetic] operation,” she said.
However, Prudencio said society should “really reflect on why we use filters,” rather than solely restricting their use. “We do not encourage young people today to be unique and to have particularities,” she said, arguing that a fuller debate is needed on the role that popular media have on body image and how this impacts mental health.
Some experts have also suggested that disclaimers and labels for edited images may not necessarily help the audience, and may in fact make things worse by drawing more attention to the image.
It is not clear to what extent influencers in France support the bill. A union representing influencers worked with legislators on the bill, and said they supported the legislation — but also organized an open letter ostensibly signed by 150 influencers that urged lawmakers not to lump them together with what they called a “minority” of influencers with “dubious business practices.”
“We are certainly not perfect. We have made mistakes. But our priority is and always will be the protection of consumers, of our communities,” the letter said. “To consider us as a threat is to discredit and despise part of the French youth.”
The letter drew controversy as critics accused the signatories of not understanding the legislation. Some influencers publicly withdrew their signatures or claimed they had never signed the letter. The union later said it regretted that the piece was “badly perceived.”
Delaporte, the member of Parliament who co-sponsored the bill, said its goal is not to judge or demonize influencers. “We don’t want to lay the blame,” he said. “We are making a law to make the sector more responsible.”
“To say, ‘We have a framework, we have rules, if you don’t respect them ... you have to change your practices.’ It’s rather healthy.”
France is not the first country to seek to legislate how influencers use filters. In 2021, lawmakers in Norway passed a law forcing influencers and advertisers to label their edited photos. And last year, a report from Britain’s lower house of Parliament urged the government to “introduce legislation that ensures commercial images are labeled with a logo where any part of the body, including its proportions and skin tone, are digitally altered.”
But Delaporte said the French bill proposal is one-of-a-kind because it seeks to regulate the whole “chain of influence,” from influencers to their agents, and touches on economic, public health and labor issues. He said he hopes that other countries will follow France’s lead. Influence and the people who wield it, he said, is “a subject that is not limited to borders.”
