A new French bill could send influencers to jail

Has anyone checked in on Emily Cooper from Emily in Paris fame? She might not be doing very well.

Motivated in part by a desire to protect people from the negative mental health repercussions tied to social media use, The National Assembly of the French parliament passed a bill on March 30 that introduces some new laws for influencers.

The bill would dramatically alter how French influencers post and would require platforms to build new tools to flag violations. The bill's provisions include:

• Requiring that all influencers have to disclose if they're using a filter.

• Requiring all influencers to disclose if their face or body has been photoshopped.

• Requiring all influencers to make it abundantly clear when their post is a paid promotion. France already requires sponsored content to be clear to users, but this legislation would require that the disclaimer be a banner across the photos and videos — not just included in the description.

• Requiring social media platforms to set up channels for consumers to report influencers.

• Subjecting influencers to the same rules as traditional media by limiting their promotions of financial products (hello, cryptocurrency bros), alcohol, tobacco, and more.

If the bill is passed by the Senate — and, according to TechCrunch, there's a "high probability" that it will — influencers will face hefty consequences for failing to meet the new requirements: up to six months in prison and a €300,000 fine.

"The sector of commercial influence and content creation is not yet taken seriously enough," Economy and Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire wrote, according to French news outlet RFI. He notes that while the social media creator industry "is a formidable creative vector" with economic benefits, it also suffers from "unclear" or even nonexistent rules.

To be clear, this bill is not yet law, and it's unclear if other countries will follow suit. The U.S., for instance, is far more lax with its rules on influencers. The FTC requires that influencers disclose the material connections they have with brands they're endorsing (i.e. influencers have to say if they're being paid to post about a brand or product. Those disclosures have to be clear, unambiguous, and conspicuous, and they have to make those disclosures directly within their endorsements.