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Next time, you visit YouTube, you may not see any social media influencer promoting a particular fund house or scheme.
SEBI has revised the definition of celebrity in which it has included social media influencers having at least 10 lakh followers on any of the digital platforms like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube or Twitter.
With this, finfluencers can no longer promote schemes of mutual funds. However, SEBI allows celebrity endorsement at industry level.
In a communication sent to AMFI, SEBI issued guidelines defining ‘celebrity’. Here is the complete definition of celebrity:
- Anyone who is featured in top 50 ranking in any celebrity index published by a national publication of reputable publisher. The index should not be more than a year old
- Anyone who has played a lead role in any main stream movie, TV serial, TV show, web series on OTT
- Anyone who is sportsperson and has been part of national team of the country or participated in international tournament such as Olympics, Asian Games, Commonwealth and other popular sports events like IPL, Kabaddi and so on
- Anyone who is host or anchor of any TV show, quiz, news channel, comedy show or so on
- Anyone who is a winner of competitive program aired on TV or OTT
- Anyone who is virtual character or fictional character who has certain following
This will come into effect from January 1, 2023.
