Washington: The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has updated its consumer protection rules for web activities, and has specifically targeting celebrity tweeters.
The consumer watchdog outlined how celebrities who want to promote a product on Twitter should do so.
To illustrate its point, the FTC used a fictional celebrity it called Juli Starz, Fox News reports.
The original tweet shows her endorsing a "Fat-away" pill that helped her lose 30 pounds in six weeks. That tweet was accompanied by a URL to the product`s site.
According to the FTC, that kind of endorsement is now illegal. The organization said that Juli didn`t say that it was an ad.
The ad also lacked a qualification saying how likely it was that others could anticipate that kind of result, the report said.
In a second example, the FTC showed Juli using the "#spon" hashtag to indicate that it`s a sponsored posting, it added.
According to the FTC, it should be clearly marked as an "ad" and include the typical results for any product.
If any celebrity tweeters violate the FTC`s advertising ruling, they could face a lawsuit and fine, the report added.
ANI
