News So, It Looks Like a Ton of Celebrities Are Actually Breaking FTC Laws on Instagram By Alexandra Whittaker Alexandra Whittaker Instagram Twitter Website Alexandra Whittaker is a news and pop culture editor based in New York City. She studied at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University and at Marquette University, where she freelanced for USA Today, Women's Wear Daily, and ELLE. She currently leads both the news and entertainment teams at Cosmopolitan magazine and previously worked as the news editor of InStyle.com where she spearheaded awards coverage. She enjoys writing and editing news stories, interviewing celebrities, and covering the intricacies of the British royal family. InStyle's editorial guidelines Updated on June 14, 2017 Pin Share Tweet Email Photo: Getty If you've had an Instagram account for awhile, you know that celebrities often post pictures of themselves promoting products. Whether it's Kim Kardashian West promoting Fit Tea or a popular influencer posing at a paid-for event, having sponsored pictures (i.e. pictures of stars using products they are paid to post) is pretty common. Which makes it even more surprising that a new report from MediaKix shows a whopping 93 percent of celebrity-sponsored posts violate Federal Trade Commission (FTC) guidelines. VIDEO: Kim K. Sets an Instagram Record Before we get into it further, let's back up a little bit. The FTC helps prevent deceptive marketing practices, but as people have started promoting stuff for money on Instagram, regulation has gotten a lot more difficult. In sponsored posts, celebrities are supposed to make it clear that they've been paid to put the picture up. If they do this, you'll typically see a "#ad" or "#sponsored" tag somewhere in the visible part of the caption (take a look at Kardashian's savvy Insta for a lesson on how to do it correctly). But just because it's easy to stay within the guidelines doesn't mean celebs do it. Earlier this year, the FTC had to issue a stern warning to 90 celebrities and influencers who had 'grams in violation of their rules. You think that would've helped clear up some of the problems, but that's where you're (sadly) wrong. According to the new report, 93 percent of celebrities' Instagram accounts still violate FTC rules, even after the warnings were issued. That's pretty darn bad. In the study, MediaKix zeroed in on Instagram's top 50 celebrity accounts, and found that only 7 percent of the posts fit FTC regulations. Having so many non-FTC-compliant posts cannot be a good sign. Instagram Will Now Let You Take Down Your Posts Without Deleting Them While a lot of stars took down questionable posts earlier this year after the warnings were issued, this is still clearly a problem. We hope that celebrities take note and start tagging their photos accordingly. Was this page helpful? Thanks for your feedback! Tell us why! Other Submit