Social Media Influencers: A Global Perspective on Legal Accountability and Media Ethics

Authors: Hilal Al Muhairi,  
Journal:  Emirati Journal of Business, Economics and Social Studies
Volume: Vol 5 Issue 1
Keywords: social media influencers, media ethics, legal accountability, Kim Kardashian, SEC, cryptocurrency, advertising disclosure, global regulation

Abstract

The rise of social media influence has reshaped the communication of information and the trust of consumers in the digital age. The opinion and endorsements of influencers shape and control the markets and behaviors of consumers as they become dominant communication vehicles. Their opinion and endorsement control the markets and behaviors of consumers. The rise of social media influences control and dominate the communication of information and the trust of consumers of the digital age. The rise negatively impacts the legal and ethical concerns of transparency, truthfulness, and the commercialization of oneself. This essay addresses the legal and ethical concerns of the influence of social media on the individual on a global scale focusing on the 2022 US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) lawsuit against Kim Kardashian, who was fined for the unlawful promotion of the cryptocurrency Ethereum Max due to a failure to disclose sponsorship. The case illustrates the advertising endorsement of a public figure, the financial power they possess, and the advertising gap legal control. This essay concerns mainly with the ethics of celebrity endorsement with changes in legal and financial power. The case illustrates the ethical concerns with celebrity endorsement and financial power. The case illustrates the new financial power of celebrity endorsement and the gap in legal control. The author, using ethical theories (deontological, ethical, and virtue theories) to analyze the cross border legal retrospective of the US, UK, EU and UAE, confronts the deficiency of aiding influence marketing with legal and ethical theories. This essay argues that the caution of the SEC vs. Kardashian as a new legal precedent is the basis for a globally coordinated ethical underdevelopment in law, digital trust, and media freedom in the digital economy

This study concludes that social media marketing is an ethically sustainable practice due to the increasing need for social media influencers to adopt ethical literacy and transparency in their activities and the necessity for a sustained and formal global regulation.