Laura Aade

New publication! 🚨 Together with my brill team (@taylorannabell.bsky.social & @cgoanta.bsky.social), we explore how parents turn kids into commodities on TikTok, diving into the nuances of *kidfluencers* & raising legal questions about platform governance. See🧵 journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1...

Join us for our webinar series with contributing authors from The Hashtag Hustle to discuss the cultural, economic, and legal dimensions of content creation as a form of labour

Register: forms.office.com/e/aW9WYQrh8Q
Book available open access: www.elgaronline.com/edcollbook-o...

On 20 Feb 15:00-16:00 (CET), our first webinar features @laade.bsky.social and her chapter on platform discretion in content moderation on professional Twitch streamers, and Malcolm Katrak and Shardool Kulkarni and their chapter on the regulation of influencer labour in India

Our edited volume, The Hashtag Hustle: Law and Policy Perspectives on Working in the Influencer Economy (with @cgoanta.bsky.social @dasfiesch.bsky.social & Isabelle Wildhaber) is available, open access www.elgaronline.com/edcollbook-o...

2/ We need to interpret, apply and *enforce* existing consumer rules to industries and practices they were not envisaged for - in this case, social media platforms with e-commerce features.

1/ We need to shed light on the legal constellation applicable to social commerce, currently fragmented between sectoral (e.g. CRD, UCPD) and non-sectoral regulation (e.g. DSA, AVMSD).

This move seems to be a strategic response to the TikTok ban in the US, driving the platform to expand its e-commerce strategy and secure new markets. Now that social commerce has (officially) entered the EU, how can we protect consumers engaging in this phenomenon?

TikTok Shop Goes Live for Spain, Ireland in Europe Rollout TikTok’s in-app shopping feature has gone live for users in Spain and Ireland, marking the first steps in an expansion of ByteDance Ltd.’s fastest-growing business across Europe.

Coincidentally, yesterday also marked the ✨ official launch of TikTok Shop in Europe (starting with Spain) ✨ previously only available in the United States, United Kingdom, and Southeast Asia www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

I had the honour to present yesterday my research at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University on the intersection between e-commerce on social media and consumer law. Thanks to @elibietti.bsky.social for facilitating this talk 🙏

My PhD is gonna ruin me. Not because of the research stress, but because studying e-commerce on social media means I’m always tempted to buy things. Latest casualty: a snowflake-shaped waffle maker 🧇❄️

And second, for consumers, TikTok increasingly feels like it’s designed to turn every interaction into a shopping opportunity, fueled by the data it collects - and it's really really starting to be concerning, especially with no clear consumer protection standards in place. 4/

This blew my mind for two reasons. First, TikTok seems to hijack this creator's organic content and is trying to turn it into a sales opportunity - without upfront agreements with the creator (or at least, not disclosed) 3/

During the video, a pop-up appears whenever a product she mentions is available on TikTok Shop (with direct access to the product listing). This pop-up is essentially an invitation to trade, seamlessly integrated into the influencer's organic content 2/

Wow, the e-commerce strategy of TikTok (US) is reaching a whole new level and it's WILD. Here's an example: this influencer is sharing some hair growth tips - no disclosed brand partnerships, no e-commerce features embedded to her content...or so it seems 👀 1/

LinkedIn introducing reels feels like the start of its midlife crisis.

go.bsky.app/CgiYns4
Hey, FYP addicts! Join into this list if you’ve got your scholarly sights set on TikTok—or if you just want to keep tabs on those who do! 🔎✨

Thank you so much for attending!!

Thank you to Laura Aade @laade.bsky.social, doctoral researcher at the University of Luxembourg, for delivering an insightful presentation yesterday on Consumer Protection in the Era of Social Media Commerce! @clicatnusl.bsky.social

Influencers & elections: An Eastern European campaign blueprint | Human Ads ERC A brief empirical analysis of an influencer marketing campaign from November 2024 for the presidential elections in Romania

Curious about how a basic political influencer campaign looks like? I scraped TikTok and analyzed 40 videos made for the upcoming Romanian presidential elections.

humanads.eu/influencers-...

Omg!! I’m obsessed with cavalier king charles spaniels and yours is such a cutie 🥹

In other words: I love Boston.

Wrapped up the day with a guest lecture on influencers, social commerce, and consumer protection (Taylor's version) with the WONDERFUL students of @elibietti.bsky.social. Reminded me how much I love teaching and *how much I learn from students* 🫶

Today was truly a special day of my research stay in the US 💫 I had such a blast presenting my draft article on the regulation of e-commerce on social media under the DSA at @nusl.bsky.social. Forever grateful to @elibietti.bsky.social & @lexlanham.bsky.social for making it happen!

Our publication on the disclosure practices of influencers from a platform perspective has been published in the @PolicyR and available open access! This type of collaboration is truly the reason why I love interdisciplinary research so much @TaylorAnnabell @CatalinaGoanta 🫶✨

Wow, 18M+ users! bsky-users.theo.io At this rate, Bluesky is going to be declared a VLOP (a very large online platform) by year-end. Once that happens, w/in 4 months of notification, 🦋 will have to comply with the most stringent rules under the EU's DSA. digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/...

Screenshot of Reynolds and Hallinan article on User-Generated Accountability from the journal New Media and Society

New article! In “User-generated accountability: Public participation in algorithmic governance on YouTube,”
Blake Hallinan and I investigate how YouTube creators act to hold the platform accountable in the face of policy failures and make noise to draw attention to their concerns. t.co/vdhoIbqhKW

This feels like old Twitter!

With the exponential growth of e-commerce on social media, these family-run warehouses are only going to become more common. But as they grow, so do questions around dropshipping practices and consumer protection standards.