Also, instagram is supposedly the platform with highest organic conversions & so I expect instagram come up with a way to monetize this off-platform Ad deals if not already.
Does any country have a law telling these influencers need to inform their followers about their sponsorship? Such laws exist for affiliate marketing.
The U.S. does.[1]
1. https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/press-releases/2017/04/ftc-s...
Now most are very careful and even "overdisclose" advertising as a result (they disclose even for products they mention that they are not paid for it).
I wish they would overdisclose here. It does not help that on social media, lots of people think adding "#sp" is enough.
There's a couple handfuls of people I know personally who still use it as all-photo Facebook, and just post pictures of their dogs, or their kids, or their lunch.
Everything else is wall-to-wall hustling. Explicitly sponsored ads, business accounts promoting their stuff, meme pages that are hawking stuff in the comments, managed celebrity accounts, fitness models shilling supplements, and on and on and on.
She doesn't buy stuff based on IG anymore.
Do you remember television or radio? How much choice did you have over the ads there? You'd literally have to sit through mass-market beer ads for minutes at a time.
With Instagram, the ads and soft-ads are oftentimes quite targeted. I get ads about theatre plays, musicals and ballet in my city. I wouldn't have found out about them otherwise - I think it's great! You can actually select an ad and say 'don't show me this stuff anymore' and provide a reason. I get to no longer see ads I don't like! Phew, that's a killer feature!
If the people you follow on instagram are generic, you get generic ads. If you follow niche markets, you get niche ads that you may be glad to find out about. Internet ads have become a reflection of sorts, if you are bothered by the ads, maybe what you're really bothered by is unfulfilled potential that the ads are a reflection of.
Your mileage may vary of course :)
The overlap between the HN crowd and the crowd following influencers is probably minimal, but as far as a % of the platform, I'd wager most people are going through these soft ads unwittingly.