Social media influencers could face an advertising clampdown after the Advertising Standards Authority announced that it would be launching an investigation into the relationship between them and brands.

The ASA wants to investigate whether the average social media user can tell if a post or video is an advert, and to look at some of the loopholes that influencers may be exploiting to mask the fact that their content is a paid-for ad.

The regulator is concerned that some publishers are taking advantage of technical flaws in the YouTube system to obscure ad disclosures, and have also raised concerns about the issue of so-called “astro-turfing”, where commercial promotions are disguised as editorial content.