Influencer ethics on Instagram

[MadameGrizzly]

Continuing the discussion on whether influencing on Instagram is an ethical business model, particularly around the disclosure of advertising and the over exposure of children.

AIBU to think it isn't a sustainable career unless the influencer is scrupulously ethical?

@Neverwas

Out of interest do you actually follow me? Because you’re heavily invested in my stories and posts. If you feel such negativity to what I post and do I suggest you stop looking, block me because your comments throughout this (very articulate and interesting thread) have been pretty nasty. It can’t be good for you to carry such spite towards someone you don’t really know can it? Just a thought

@Flyingbird

Yes on my post not this thread. The discussion around race got understandably quite heated but on the whole it was respectful. There were 2 accounts which made comments directed to me, by the time I saw them they had been removed. Then someone accused me of deleting them which I didn’t. It was all really weird.

Lol - it was clearly MOD that deleted them - ffs! The comments weren't "bullying" at all. Does she think we are all idiots?!

I don't follow you Anyalovesrose. I looked at your account after the 3rd instamum thread I think. I haven't commented until this thread because I was interested in the ethics discussion. The algorithm pops you and FOD up because I follow other instamums I think. I commented on your book review because it came up and I looked at your stories tonight because a pp mentioned it.

What you said on the stories isn't true is it. There are deleted posts on your account.

I am not 'heavily invested' in you at all. Not everything is about you. I have commented on several instamums if you care to look at my comments on this thread.

But good advice. I will block you now.

Still here 👋🏼

I didn’t delete them as I said Instagram deleted them and apparently they’re also being more proactive about faceless accounts with 0 followers, 0 posts and 0 following

@Neverwas

Well we can all sleep better tonight knowing that then can’t we.

With the offensive comment filter the offensive comments can still be seen by the person who posted them I believe. The recipient and other people on the same post don't have to see them. Clever use of AI by Instagram because effectively trolls get ignored. Perhaps MN May introduce it one day 😬

FlyingBird thank you for your diplomacy. You are quite right, I get the wrong end of the stick, my apologies Anyalovesrose. I commented yesterday that you had deleted previous posts. As I am not 'heavily invested' in you I had not read the 500 odd comments on your book review post, which you were referring to.

Interestingly, the new 'bullying filter' on IG "hides comments that contain attacks on a person's appearance or character, as well as threats to a person's well-being or health".

This leaves me wondering how there is a full dialogue on the post and the comments by one person appear to have been subsequently removed. If they had been 'hidden' there would have been no response to them.

I stand by my assertion Anyalovesrose that you delete things you don't like to hear, and you would like MN to shut down any conversation about you here.

Same question back @anyalovesrose - why are you so heavily invested in these threads if they upset you? If you don't like what you see why do you follow?

Surely you must understand if you share such a hugely detailed view of your and your family's lives then people are going to have opinions on you (good and bad) just like any other online personality?

@Powergower Thank you for DM me last year when I asked. I do try to respond to all DM's, but I did get rather a lot around that time and you must have slipped through the net. However, that isn't to say I disregarded the comments and just carried on the same. The majority of the commenters felt that my disclosure was more than adequate.

I am not ashamed of how I make my living and I certainly do not class myself as an Instahawker.

I am going to make changes as to how I disclose on Instagram thanks to this thread and in addition to ad or spon, I am going to use the full word advert, sponsored or gift.

@anyalovesrose you are lying. People have proof that you’re lying. You’re tripping up over your lies even in your comments here. You just said “by the time i saw them they’d been removed”, people can go to your thread right now and see that is a lie because you responded to them several times. The comments that you are claiming Instagram magically filtered out for you were people asking you specifically which preconceptions you had of people of colour that were challenged by the book, and why you had not commented on the anti Semitic theme in the thread. Which of those words do you believe Instagram filtered out? The accounts were private but did have profile pictures. Your followers can be very nasty indeed so I don’t blame them for keeping anonymity

I find it quite astonishing that even when a thread tries it best not to mention any specific Instagrammer, it still ends up being all about a certain Instagrammer.

I wonder why that is?

And I agree with a PP that if that certain Instagrammer doesn't like what she's reading, that she takes her own advice and avoids these threads altogether, especially when, according to her own posts, she's doesn't even use Mumsnet.

I wonder why that is?

Tone. There's much to be said about paying attention to tone when writing.

I feel it becomes about one instagrammer in particular because @anyalovesrose refuses to engage in any criticism whatsoever. Others have been able to take a step back & learn from other peoples’ Points of view. There are several questions that @anyalovesrose simply refuses to answer which is why posters won’t let it rest. One is how do you feel about using your children to make money? Including the child safety aspect. You’ve even said that you think a photo your husband posted of them using the toilet is too far yet it’s still on his feed.
Personally, the part of your Instagram that upsets me the most is the way you use others in a disadvantaged situation to further yourself. Your trip to Madagascar served no purpose other than to make you look good. It was all paid for & the money could’ve gone to much better use especially when you were having birthday parties in the hotel at night. In the months following that trip which highlighted extreme poverty, you’ve gone from one highly luxurious free holiday to the next with no comment on how unattainable that is for a regular mum of 4 let alone the women you claim to care about in Madagascar

For example, the tone in this piece of writing is receptive, mature and non-petulant:

I am going to make changes as to how I disclose on Instagram thanks to this thread and in addition to ad or spon, I am going to use the full word advert, sponsored or gift.

As a result, the writer has earned my respect.

Ah, I see what you mean Grizzly

Good point.

I realy don’t care how anyone makes their money. If you can make money or get free stuff off the back of it, good for you, I guess.

But I kind of hate the breathless, isn’t my life so WONDERFUL tone some of them take.

I think some of them really let it go to their heads and that’s not a good look on anyone.

I used to run a pretty successful blog and the way some bloggers act, it makes me cringe. Even if you’re successful, acting like you are a big shot, especially for something like a blog or an instagram account that, tbh, almost anyone could do, is just so cringe.

It’s not that hard to be successful if you know how to use google analytics and all that stuff.

On the flip side other instagrammers delete negative comments, make very public accusations of bullying, refuse to engage with sensible questions and keep repeating the 'why are you so obsessed with me, stop following!' line.

That all leads to a complete lack of respect.

You've made really good points, Mummyshephard. A couple of days ago while I pondered out loud whether influencers should use some of their influence to help those less privileged, I thought of the Madagascar trip, but didn't want the thread to just be about the ODs.

To put the extensive overseas holidays in perspective:

Some children have never seen the sea. Some children have never had a holiday. Some children have never had a pair of shoes or clothes bought new, let alone a full holiday wardrobe.

Really good points Mummyshepherd. The Madagascar trip sat really uneasily with me. I've worked in international development and would be very interested to know whether the campaign paid off in terms of financial donations to the charity. If I recall correctly there was a lot on the ODs' posts at the time about it being about ' raising awareness'. But really, there can't be many people who aren't already aware that the majority of women in the world give birth without access to clean water. Comic Relief - for all its faults- have been raising awareness on that for decades and even they are rethinking how they use celebrities after the Ed Sheeran/ poverty porn disaster. Why was there no public long term engagement between the ODs and the charity? It was quite crass that their feeds moved on immediately to luxury freebie holidays and hawking cereals or whatever.