| Abstract [eng] |
In this thesis “Peculiarities of Advertising on Social Networks” the author Gabrielė Velta Mickevičiūtė analyses the problematic aspects of advertising in social networks and their regulation, including legal regulation at the European Union and Lithuanian level, while analysing the self-regulatory measures of social networks – internal rules. Based on that view, the paper firstly analyses the general concept of advertising, distinguishing the characteristics, types, and methods of dissemination of online advertising, based on the view that the advertising on social networks is one of the types of online advertising. Accordingly, the thesis analyses the concept of social networks their specifics of use for advertising. Major attention is on the identification and analysis of the most problematic aspects of social networks advertising. Firstly, social networks advertising is based on a large amount of personal date, which is used to disseminate targeted advertising. The main problem with such advertising is that, under the current European Union legal framework, users cannot, in principle, completely opt out of targeted advertising on social networks. Secondly, social networks are distinguished from other traditional advertising media by using influencer advertising, which is the most problematic form of hidden advertising. There is no legislation at European Union level to regulate the advertising activities of influencers, which has led to a fragmentation of regulation in the Member States of the European Union. Thirdly, today social networks are used to disseminate fake news, which are adapted for political advertising. However, the existing regulation of political advertising is tailored only to traditional media therefore is insufficient to ensure transparency of political advertising on social networks. In the contexts of these main problematic peculiarities of social networks advertising, the European Union proposes new legal instruments specifically for the online space, whereas self-regulation of social networks is insufficient. In principle, the European Union’s legal framework should not only focus on controlling the content of advertising, but also on controlling the self- regulation of social networking sites, since today they are controlling only themselves with setting general rules that apply to their users. |
