The civil and criminal liability of digital influencers

Abstract

Faced with the incalculable expansion and use of the internet and its social interaction platforms in recent years, there is an urgent need to discuss and analyze the consumption of online content and how it impacts our society today. The great technological innovations were able to transform society broadly and irreversibly, and the emergence and evolution of the internet was no different. Social networks have changed the way people produce and absorb content globally. Barriers and physical distances were narrowed in terms of communication. On the other hand, reach and audience increased and were substantially simplified. Digital influencers emerge in this scenario, bringing more complexity to the dynamics of online interactions, and these users use social networks for their self-promotion and expose their habits, desires, personal experiences, opinions, consumption habits and other forms of private exposure. This habit has become a form of work and a market that generates huge amounts of wealth, but which still lacks regulation and supervision and, above all, accountability of those who use it without adequate prudence and wisdom. This research aimed to analyze from a legal and legal point of view the civil and criminal liability of these influencers and what is their extension, seeking to identify and analyze the importance and consumption of social networks, the power of the audience reached and advertising of digital influencers, the way in which they have used existing tools for their own or third-party promotion, covering individuals and legal entities. We sought to analyze the work of digital influencers in the light of the Consumer Defense Code (CDC) and other legislation. It delved into relevant topics such as publicity and the right to freedom of expression in order to achieve the proposed ends. To carry out the research, the methodology chosen was the research and literature review, and it was concluded that digital influencers are co-responsible for the consequences of their illicit advertising, especially when they fail to show the advertising character of the publication and/or when they to provide the appropriate and necessary information in the dissemination of its products that give rise to harmful events in consumers. It was concluded that the CDC attributes to all those involved in the consumer relationship joint and several liability in the face of damages and equates the digital influencer to the concept of supplier. It was concluded that digital influencers can be held civilly and criminally liable for their publications in full exercise of the right to freedom of expression that violate individual and collective rights and that cause material and extra-patrimonial damages. Likewise, it was possible to identify that the conduct of digital influencers can lead to the commission of criminal offenses which will conform to the criminal type depending on the conduct.