India moves to regulate social media “finfluencers”

India is proposing to classify social media influencers with more than 500,000 followers as celebrities for the purposes of financial advertising, bringing many creators under the same endorsement rules that apply to film stars and other public figures.

The proposal, published by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), forms part of a wider effort to strengthen investor protection as financial content is increasingly made and distributed by creators.

Under the draft framework, influencers who meet the threshold would be allowed to endorse financial firms, but would be barred from promoting specific financial products or services. Any such endorsement would also require prior approval from a supervisory body.

The proposed Common Advertisement Code would, for the first time, formally include social media influencers within SEBI's definition of a celebrity, alongside sportspersons, television anchors, reality TV participants and virtual human-like avatars.

The move is the latest step in India's broader effort to formalise its creator economy. As previously reported by The Daily Influence, the government has proposed extending IT rules to influencers publishing news content and has also signalled that platforms could be required to share revenue with creators.

Social media consultant and industry analyst Matt Navarra said the 500,000-follower threshold was a practical starting point, but an imperfect measure of influence.

"500,000 is a tidy number for a regulated spreadsheet, but it is not a magic point where influence suddenly begins," he told The Daily Influence.

He argued that expertise often matters more than audience size.

"A finance specialist with 499,000 followers has far more power to influence investment decisions than a comedy creator with a million followers. SEBI has drawn a line in roughly the right place, but follower count is a pretty blunt instrument for measuring financial influence."

Rather than treating the threshold as a hard cut-off, Navarra said it should trigger greater regulatory scrutiny.

"I would use 500,000 as a trigger for additional checks, not necessarily as the line separating risky promotion from harmless promotion. Regulation should scale with influence.”

How other markets are approaching it

Navarra expects more regulators to introduce creator thresholds, although not necessarily by adopting India's model.

"Italy already classifies someone as a relevant influencer if they reach 500,000 followers or one million average monthly views on at least one platform," he said. "The UK takes a different approach. Its financial promotion rules focus on what someone is promoting, not how famous they are, because an influencer with a relatively small audience can still fall within the rules."

The UK's approach has already resulted in enforcement action. Earlier this year, seven influencers were sentenced after pleading guilty to issuing unauthorised financial promotions linked to a foreign exchange trading scheme marketed to their combined 4.5 million Instagram followers.

Navarra expects regulation to converge around a hybrid model.

"My guess is we will probably end up with basic responsibilities for anyone promoting financial services, plus extra scrutiny once they reach a significant scale."

The consultation is open until 14 July 2026. If adopted, regulated entities will have six months to comply before the new code comes into force.