Australia: Experts call for tighter controls on online vaping advertising ban

According to experts, the new laws Australian laws due to come into force on 1 April banning vaping ads on social media may be ineffective unless additional provisions are adopted for cross-border advertising. It is currently unclear what legislation applies to overseas-based platforms promoting vaping products in Australia.

In response to the failure of social media platforms to self-regulate to stop e-cigarette advertising in Australia, new legislation will come into force in the coming days. Influencers will also be prohibited from entering into an agreement with the tobacco/vaping industry to promote one of their products.

Quantitatively very significant advertising on digital platforms

Researchers from Curtin University’s School of Public Health studied the type of vaping content on Instagram and TikTok and assessed it against the social media’s content policies. Of the 264 selected videos featuring e-cigarettes posted on TikTok, almost all (98%) presented the products in a positive light. The researchers also identified 369 e-cigarette-focused accounts on Instagram. They found that 100 % of the content posted by these accounts was positive about vaping products. Many of these posts encouraged consumption by offering discounts and other promotions or giving away products.

The results were published in three articles in the journals BMC Public Health, Tobacco Induced Diseases And International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. This data was used in Social Media Information Note sent by Curtin University in March to schools, parliamentarians and health promotion organisations in Australia.

Force digital platforms to remove vaping advertising

Currently, the obligations incumbent on social media platforms are mobilizing different stakeholders regarding their effective application. This involves external observers whose mission is to analyze the content; to this are added automatic technical devices that detect and delete problematic content, and finally teams within the platforms in charge of defining standards and supervising the entire online posting process. These moderation and control processes can be difficult due to their inability to interpret the language, context and standards of the community. Thus, the distinction between problematic messages and authorized messages cannot be established. This difficulty is reinforced by the fact that manufacturers adapt their wording in advertisements to circumvent the prohibitions imposed by algorithms.

The briefing note by the Curtin University researchers recommends that the federal government widely publicise the legislative reforms that come into force in April. In particular, it recommends that the Department of health has greater resources to monitor platforms and ensure compliance and enforcement of laws.

A study published in the journal Tobacco Control[1] Earlier this year, the study showed that despite the 2019 ban by Meta Group (which owns Facebook and Instagram) on tobacco and nicotine advertising on its platforms, advertising content is still present in 2023. In 85% of the cases, the posts positively promoted tobacco and nicotine products and were sponsored by tobacco companies. The authors of the study highlighted how online promotions can cross digital borders and expose citizens of other countries to these ads when the cross-border advertising ban is not enforced.

At the 10th Conference of the Parties to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (COP10) held in Panama in February, the Parties adopted guidelines to specifically address the issue of cross-border advertising in the digital environment. These guidelines complement those adopted in 2008 and concern theArticle 13 of the FCTC.

Tags: Australia, Social Media, Instagram, TikTok, Marketing, Vaping, E-Cigarette, Advertising

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[1] Laestadius L, Van Hoorn K, Vassey J, et al Tobacco, nicotine and counter-marketing promotions using Instagram's branded content tool Tobacco Control Published Online First: 30 December 2023. doi: 10.1136/tc-2023-058301