APCON begins regulation of social media advertising in January
The Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria (APCON) has declared there is no going back on its earlier decision to embark on full scale regulation of advertising activities on platforms of the social media.
The Council said starting from January, 2020 it would commence total regulation of social media advertising insisting it was within its powers to give oversight regulation to advertising activities on the social media in line with legislative acts establishing the Council.
It would be recalled that the issue of whether or not it was in the purview of the Council to exercise oversight regulation of social media advertising have been a subject of controversy lately raising serious debates within industry stakeholders.
But speaking in an exclusive chat with Marketing Edge Publications in Lagos, Acting Registrar of the Council, Mrs. Ijedi Iyoha said that the decision by APCON to embark on regulation of advertising on the social media was biding, adding that with effect from January, 2020, it becomes an offence for anyone to engage on advertising related activities on the social media without obtaining due clearance from the Council.
There were earlier feelings in some quarters that the Council’s plan to effect regulation of social media may not see the light of the day, following recent pronouncements emanating from the presidency indicating to the contrary that regulating the social media was not the best option for government.
The Vice President, Professor Yemi Ohibajo, speaking at an inter-faith tolerance dialogue organised by the United Arab Emirates recently in Abuja said that he did not subscribe to the regulation of the social media by the government.
But according to the Council boss, there is no going back on the decision to regulate the social media, because “Article 21 and 80 (a) of the Nigerian Code of Advertising Practice, Sales Promotion and Other Rights Restrictions of Practice” quoted in the directive means that APCON’s mandate covers all areas of advertising, including those deployed online”.
According to a statement recently released by the regulatory body, everyone planning to put out an advert on social media has to ensure that such materials are vetted by APCON first before it is exposed to the public, just as it is done for traditional media.
In her words: “APCON is the governing body that monitors and ensures ethical advertising practice in Nigeria. We have a mandate to regulate advertising in all its aspects, including online.
“We have seen it and my team is working on it. It’s our mandate to vet everything and that’s what we’re trying to do,” she said.
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