Instagram has announced it will seriously begin to vet and clampdown on influencers’ posts and the products they vend.
The company revealed today that it has always banned branded posts that advertise vapes, tobacco, and weapons, it’s going to start enforcing those rules more strictly.
Instagram will also begin to apply special restrictions around the promotion of other products, like alcohol and diet supplements. The company said it will allow creators to restrict who can see their content based on age, an upcoming feature the company mentioned earlier this month when it announced that new users would have to input their birthdates.
In a related development, the company also disclosed that it will open up Facebook’s Brand Collabs Manager to a “select group” of Instagram creators, which means creators will be able to share insights and engagement with brands and find potential brand partners that align with their audience.
This could bring a significant change to how the influencer system works on Instagram. Previously until recently, influencers sent screenshots of their metrics to partners or gave a third-party app access to their account so the brands could check the metrics on their own. Now, creators included in this program can “source new deals, manage partnerships, and automatically share insights with them,” all from within Facebook’s own tool.
Users had expected Instagram to make a move like this when it began hiding the public like count on posts. That metric was the most obvious indicator of engagement for brands that were scouting potential creators and getting rid of it worried creators. With this test, Instagram could — if it expands the Brand Collabs Manager pool — contain everything about the influencer space within Facebook’s own products.
