Social media is a powerful marketing tool, and influencers are the name of the game. The best influencers on Instagram and TikTok earn millions. Regulated financial institutions and scammers deploy influencers to chase after clients and victims, respectively. Lately, the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has taken action against Freetrade (www.freetrade.io) and ordered the regulated broker to remove all paid-for sponsored influencer advertisements and posts across all social media platforms.

In December 2020, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) sought to break up Meta and to unwind acquisitions of Instagram in 2012 and WhatsApp in 2014. Unfortunately, Judge James E. Boasberg found that FTC had not plausibly supported its case, and thus could not proceed. Under the new chair Lina Khan FTC re-filed with more evidence and now the case has been approved for trial. But now TikTok is the new champion. In 2021, it was the most visited website in the world.