At the end of October The China Cyberspace Administration announced new regulations requiring influencers speaking on medical, legal, financial and educational topics to have appropriate qualifications. Platforms are to be responsible for their verification, under penalty of up to PLN 100,000. yuan (a little over PLN 50,000).
Experts emphasize that the decisions of the Chinese authorities are another form of systemic censorship. However, regulations regarding influencer activities sparked a discussion about whether similar steps are needed in other countries.
— When I heard about it, I began to wonder whether we were dealing with an attempt to control or rather to organize the still very young space of social media and the digital products market, says Magdalena Pawłowska, an expert in knowledge monetization, leader in the creation and sale of digital products. — This is still a young economic space that resembles the “wild west” – there are general legal regulations, but holding someone responsible for harmful content remains a challenge.
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Reach does not equal expertise
The key problem of the modern Internet is equating reach with knowledge. According to the PWN Dictionary of the Polish Language, an expert is “a person with thorough knowledge in a given field” or “a specialist appointed to issue an opinion on controversial matters.”
Meanwhile, social media has its own rules. Audiences assume that a profile with 100,000 followers automatically denotes an expert, while a true specialist with a small community may offer much more valuable knowledge. This mechanism is reinforced by crowd psychology: the more people follow a given profile, the more willing subsequent users are to click “follow”, turning off critical thinking.
— Increasingly, expert status is equated with popularity on the Internet. We need to separate actual expertise from the number of followers, the expert notes. Someone with a small following may be a true authority in their field, while someone with a large reach may spread harmful or erroneous content.
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Niche experts, same responsibility
— In Spain, a particularly regulated influencer is someone with more than two million followersbut even a fraction of such ranges already has a significant impact – emphasizes Magdalena Pawłowska. Experts from very narrow specializations are increasingly successful.
Agnieszka Dembińska, dealing with hazardous materials management in the occupational health and safety industry, transferred the stationary training model to the digital space. No prior recognition it generated PLN 1 million in revenue in two years. E-learning allowed it to eliminate geographical barriers and fixed costs that made it impossible to scale traditional learning business.
Dr. Magdalena Cubała took a similar path. For the doctor, building an expert brand on the Internet has become an element of a long-term retirement strategy. Digital products are intended to provide her not only with passive income after finishing her work in the office, but also to enable further sharing of knowledge with a wide range of recipients – regardless of time and place.
A good example is also Arkadiusz Bąk, known on the Internet as “Arek of excavators”. On a daily basis, he runs a construction company and works with excavators. On the Internet, he has created digital products aimed at people who want to enter the industry or improve their qualifications. His training shows that even such a physical, “offline” profession can be translated into online courses and find recipients – if it solves a real problem of a specific group.
All of the above-mentioned people bear great responsibility for the safety of the recipients of this content. The problem begins when similar advice is given by a celebrity whose knowledge is based on guesswork, questionable sources or his own beliefs.
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Monetization of knowledge and regulations
The biggest challenge remains the issue of regulation and certification. There are already legal requirements for financial advice, but many areas remain in a gray area. Does a home budget expert need an economics degree? Does a specialist in cryptocurrency – a topic that universities are just beginning to teach – need to have a formal financial education?
— It is not possible to easily decide whether all creators should have certificates or formal education. Many effective educators have acquired competences outside the academic system and are able to impart practical knowledge, even if they do not have an economics diploma or a university certificate, notes Magdalena Pawłowska. However, he adds that the Internet space requires regulation, especially when influencers provide advice that may affect the health or finances of recipients.
The knowledge monetization market is no longer a niche of a few people, but a serious branch of the economy with huge growth potential. — In 2024, the global e-learning and digital education market reached a value of over USD 200 billion, and forecasts indicate further dynamic development. Such regulations are becoming necessary – sums up the expert.
