Indonesia to Ban Social Commerce; Political Ads to Require AI Disclaimers, say Google

by Grace Dillon on 14th Sep 2023 in News

In today's ExchangeWire news digest: the Indonesian government threatens to ban social commerce; Google say that political ads will be forced to disclose AI use; and Deliveroo partner with Gopuff to expand their grocery delivery efforts.

Indonesia threatens ban on social commerce

The Indonesian government is planning to introduce new trade regulations that will forbid the sale of goods via social media platforms. The announcement follows repeated complaints from government officials that social commerce is undermining Indonesia’s retail sector.

TikTok, whose social commerce offering has faced the ire of Indonesia’s regulators, have criticised the plans. The ByteDance-owned firm argue that being forced to divest TikTok Shop from their core app would stifle innovation and that the move “would also disadvantage Indonesian merchants and consumers.”

Google to require AI disclaimers in political ads

Google will make it compulsory for political ads to disclose whether they contain AI-generated content. The requirement, which is set to come into force in November, marks an attempt by the Big Tech company to clamp down on online disinformation, which has become more prominent amid the proliferation of artificial intelligence tools.

Applicable ads may be accompanied with labels with messages such as “this image does not depict real events” or “this video content was synthetically generated,” according to reports.

Deliveroo and Gopuff unite to expand grocery service

Deliveroo has joined forces with Gopuff to bolster its grocery delivery service, adding more than 3,000 products to its inventory. Grocery orders made up 11% of Deliveroo’s revenue in 2022, and Gopuff recorded a 20% rise in such orders from January 2023.

The tie up follows Gopuff’s launch of a new advertising platform last month, which allows brands to run and manage targeted ads for specific products on the platform.