The Advertising Standards Authority is to extend its remit to social networks, mobile apps and corporate websites in a comprehensive crackdown on online advertising.
The new rules are designed to police content on social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter and cover user-generated content as well, if that content has been commissioned by companies for marketing purposes.
According to the ASA’s chairman, Chris Smith, the move will result in the most comprehensive regulation of advertising on the web anywhere in the world.
Funded by the advertising industry, the ASA already has powers to ban misleading advertising on television, in print and in certain forms online, such as banner ads.
In order to help regulate the new forms of media, Google, as well as other media companies, have pledged to donate and buy space in their sponsored results to name and shame offenders. The ASA will also launch a special page on its site with the same function and will also be able to ask search engines to remove links to offending pages.
Complaints about online and mobile marketing have increased dramatically in recent years, according to the ASA. Over the course of 2008, the ASA received 3,500 complaints that fell outside its remit, but for 2009 that number rose to 30,000. The decision to extend the Advertising Practice Code was taken as a result of an industry-wide formal recommendation.
The new regulations will come into effect on 1 March 2011.
