Influencers to be held accountable for misleading content on new register

It will ensure influencers work to an industry standard and are held to account for their content

A new register for influencers has been launched to help combat concerns regarding misinformation online.

Called The Register of Health & Wellness Influencers (ROHWI), it is the first and only register for health and wellness influencers worldwide.

Founded by WellSpoken – an organisation that works with brands and bloggers to create credible content – and the Health Bloggers Community, the register aims to manage growing concerns over the content that is shared online.

The launch comes after research undertaken by the organisations behind the register found a growing number of people were dubious about information shared by influencers.

It found that 74 per cent of consumers identified that the least trustworthy health and wellness information was found on social media.

Similarly, 76 per cent of both brands and influencers surveyed indicated that stronger regulations would make them feel more secure and confident about working together on collaborations.

Sarah Greenidge, founder of WellSpoken and co-founder of the register said: “The current lack of industry-specific legislation has meant that consumers and other stakeholders have been active players in holding influencers accountable.

“While there is an infinite number of ways in which credible content can be curated, our training and framework will ultimately raise existing industry standards by ensuring that influencers now have a standardised way of working when it comes to content.”

Fab Giovanetti, founder of the Health Bloggers Community and co-founder of the register agreed, adding that the register will help influencers face challenges such as “poor quality information, irresponsible communications and inappropriate affiliations”.

The register follows a recent study by the University of Glasgow which revealed that social media influencers give bad diet and fitness advice eight times out of nine.

The health researchers studied the country’s most popular influencers and examined whether the claims made by them were transparent, trustworthy, nutritionally sound and included evidence-based references.

The findings showed that the majority of bloggers failed in fundamental areas, with five of them presented opinion as fact or failed to provide evidence-based references for nutritional claims.

Of the advice-based blogs, only one by a registered nutritionist with a degree passed overall, with 75 per cent. The lowest compliance, 25 per cent, was from an influencer without any nutritional qualifications.

Lead author Christina Sabbagh said: “We found that the majority of the blogs could not be considered credible sources of weight management information, as they often presented opinion as fact and failed to meet UK nutritional criteria.

“This is potentially harmful, as these blogs reach such a wide audience.”

Applications for the ROHWI register are now open here.