More than 100 social media influencers are already in the sights of Australia's consumer watchdog, amid a crackdown on undisclosed advertising and other misleading digital content.
A cross-platform social media sweep launched this week by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has already prompted dozens of complaints, mostly in relation to influencers in the fields of beauty, lifestyle, fashion and parenting.
As reported last week by the ABC, the campaign is targeting platforms including Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, YouTube and Facebook, and is scrutinising sectors "where influencer marketing is particularly widespread".
That includes health, fitness, wellbeing, travel, and food and beverage.
"We are looking quite broadly at up-and-coming influencers and also very well-established [influencers with] millions of followers," the ACCC's chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb told ABC News Breakfast.
"We are also going to look, though, as well, at [influencers involved in] gaming, electronic equipment — sometimes they even promote financial products.
"We put our own Facebook post up, and asked consumers to come forward and give us tip-offs — we got over 1,000 responses, likes, shares."
More than 100 influencers have so far been reported to the ACCC, which said it had received in excess of 150 tip-offs so far.
But influencers are not the only ones potentially in the firing line, with the watchdog saying it would also consider the role of advertisers and the social media platforms themselves "in facilitating misconduct".
Brands suspected of dodgy practices would also be scrutinised, the ACCC said.
"We're looking for undisclosed paid endorsements or misleading testimonials that omit key information about the product that's being promoted by social media," Ms Cass-Gottlieb said.
"People are looking at it thinking it has the integrity of just an ordinary person's recommendation, and we find with online purchasing that people take a lot of note and are persuaded by influencers.
"What can influencers do? What would we want them to do? We want them to be honest, we want them to be up-front and we want them to disclose any financial benefit that they're getting from making the post."
The sweep will run until February 3, with the ACCC committed to releasing its findings.
