Virat Kohli may be flouting ASCI's guidelines but Hrithik Roshan plays safe

Recently, cricketer Virat Kohli not only had to face backlash on social media for his post where he says that 10 percent of Indian Olympians are from Lovely Professional University, he even came under ad regulator ASCI's scanner for it.

This has sparked a debate on whether celebrities are more likely to flout the Advertising Standards Council of India's (ASCI) guidelines which states that content creators will have to use disclosures for sponsored content.

Virat Kohli's Lovely Professional University post under ad regulator's radar, as it tightens rules on influencer endorsements

While Kohli may not be following the guidelines, actor Hrithik Roshan is.

The actor today while promoting online fashion brand Myntra posted on social media saying, "Proud to be part of Myntra Style Fam #India'sFashionExpert #Myntra #Ad."

Roshan currently has a social media following of 96.2 million across Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

According to the new guidelines, which came into effect from June 14 this year, content creators or influencers will have to use disclosure labels like #ad, promo, sponsored for any branded content.

ASCI so far has received around 40 complaints. Manisha Kapoor, Secretary-General, ASCI, in an earlier interview told Moneycontrol said that "most influencers found violating guidelines have either corrected or removed the posts within a couple of hours of being contacted by us."

When it comes to guidelines for branded content, India alone is not regulating paid content on social media.

Many other international markets have put in place such guidelines. For example, UK which has an Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) that monitors paid content.

In fact, earlier this year ASA warned influencers that it will take enforcement action to quash non-compliance after it found that many influencers were breaching the rules.

UK's ad regulator last September found only 35 percent of ads were labelled properly and which were clearly identifiable.

While India too is trying to bring transparency for the internet audience when it comes to paid content, compliance will be a challenge.

This is because so far it is estimated that only 20 percent of the entire influencer community is currently following the guidelines and it maybe because of lack of awareness.