Published on March 27, 2023 at 1:01 p.m.
Squeezie and other youtubers dissociate themselves this Sunday, March 26 from a platform of 150 influencers addressed to deputies. – ©David Fisher/Shutterstock
A column signed by 150 influencers and content creators denouncing the risks of a framework for their activity was published in the JDD on Sunday March 26. Since its publication, several signatories, such as Squeezie and Dr. Nozman, have backtracked.
“I didn’t even read it before publication. “Squeezie, the most popular French youtubeur dissociates himself from the platform he signed alongside 149 other influencers to denounce the “excesses of a minority”, published in the JDD on Sunday March 26. The signatories call on the deputies not to break their “model” while a bill must be examined to regulate their activity.
Following several controversies over this text, the most followed Frenchman on YouTube published a long tweet in which he justifies himself: “I made the mistake of giving my consent for my name to appear. I was presented with this forum as a way to defend ourselves against laws that are too extreme, which could have wrongly penalized honest content creators. »
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“I am delighted that these scammers are finally punished”
Followed by 18 million people on YouTube, Squeezie recognizes “an error”. “In reality, this forum makes no distinction between content creators and influencers, and just seems to try to limit the damage on malicious influencers. This absence of distinction is also present in the signatories, among whom we find influencers at the very origin of the problem (people who have put forward the casino, cosmetic surgery, scams, etc…”, a-t-t he tweeted.
Dr Nozman, another content creator specializing in popular science, was the first to back down on Twitter: “When I was told about it a few days ago, I was told it would be hyper-restrictive for us creators, that abusive control would be imposed, etc. When I see the reality, and the things proposed, I think that they are for the most part necessary to move in the right direction, and that they target precisely real problems and dangers.” The youtuber recognizes that he should have been more “vigilant”. “Our work must be better framed to avoid creepy drifts made by certain people and certain agencies on these platforms”, he insists.
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A controversial forum
The Union of Influencers and Content Creators (UMICC), at the initiative of the forum, reacted on Twitter in response to the controversies that followed the publication of the text, this Monday, March 27: “We regret that the platform on the initiative of the UMICC and signed by content creators in the JDD was badly perceived. This text aimed, on the eve of the vote in the National Assembly, to tell what the job of creator is and to support the initiative to regulate the sector of influence by the public authorities in order to protect the consumer. … »
The forum denounces a minority of “influencers” on Instagram, YouTube and TikTok. Bruno Le Maire, Minister of the Economy, presented a battery of measures aimed at regulating the sector so far off the radar. As early as January, the repression of fraud (DGCCRF) had published a damning investigation into the practices of the sector: deception on the products sold, promotion of risky sports bets, even injections “by beauticians and non-professionals of health “.
The government now wants to regulate these new professions, by subjecting them to the “same advertising rules” as the traditional media. The transpartisan bill, which also provides for the prohibition of the promotion of cosmetic surgery, must be examined in the National Assembly this week.