Human rights activists accuse Eminem and Snoop Dogg of shilling NFTs

What’s new? Truth in Advertising, a non-profit consumer advocacy organization, claimed that 19 celebrities, including rappers Eminem and Snoop Dogg, are engaged in advertising and promoting non-fungible tokens (NFTs) on social media without disclosing their connections to the projects. According to the non-profit organization’s representatives, this could violate the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) rules. This is reported by Cointelegraph.

News on the Cointelegraph website

Shilling is the active advertising of a project on social media. It usually involves influencers, bloggers, and other celebrities who make a review of the project and urge to become part of it, invest money, buy NFTs, etc.

What else is known about the charges? Truth in Advertising conducted an investigation into the celebrities who promote NFTs, concluding that “it is an area rife with deception.” In addition to Eminem and Snoop Dogg, involved in shilling were noticed Justin Bieber and Paris Hilton, sports stars Floyd Mayweather and Tom Brady, and several actresses including Gwyneth Paltrow and Reese Witherspoon. Letters were sent to all of them urging them to immediately disclose any connections to NFT companies or brands.

The non-profit organization cited that FTC rules require influencers to disclose any financial ties to the brands they support. That said, as Cointelegraph notes, there have been no previous cases of celebs being prosecuted for shilling NFTs or cryptocurrencies. Several lawsuits are currently pending, the most high-profile of which is alleging that Elon Musk manipulated the Dogecoin rate. In this case, US citizen Keith Johnson seeks $258 billion in damages and a ban for Musk to promote the meme cryptocurrency.

It is known that the legal teams of Justin Bieber and Reese Witherspoon responded to the letters of human rights defenders. The singer’s representatives deny any wrongdoing in this area, and the actress’ lawyers said that she does not receive any material benefits from the promotion of NFTs.

For more details on what fraud schemes exist in the NFT market and how to protect yourself from them, see GetBlock Magazine’s special feature.