Influencer Self-Disclosure Practices on Instagram: A Multi-Country Longitudinal Study

TL;DR

This longitudinal study analyzes over a decade of Instagram content from 400 creators across four countries, revealing how legal and platform changes influence disclosure practices and engagement patterns.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive cross-country analysis of influencer disclosure practices and their evolution over time in response to legislation and platform features.

Findings

Differences in content monetisation practices across countries.

Similar engagement trends despite posting frequency differences.

Proper disclosures do not reduce user engagement.

Abstract

This paper presents a longitudinal study of more than ten years of activity on Instagram consisting of over a million posts by 400 content creators from four countries: the US, Brazil, Netherlands and Germany. Our study shows differences in the professionalisation of content monetisation between countries, yet consistent patterns; significant differences in the frequency of posts yet similar user engagement trends; and significant differences in the disclosure of sponsored content in some countries, with a direct connection with national legislation. We analyse shifts in marketing strategies due to legislative and platform feature changes, focusing on how content creators adapt disclosure methods to different legal environments. We also analyse the impact of disclosures and sponsored posts on engagement and conclude that, although sponsored posts have lower engagement on average, properly disclosing ads does not reduce engagement further. Our observations stress the importance of disclosure compliance and can guide authorities in developing and monitoring them more effectively.