Objective

This article examines hidden advertising by Iranian influencers on Instagram and develops a jurisprudential and legal framework for identifying and regulating it. The study is motivated by the rapid growth of influencer marketing and the central challenge of concealed commercial messaging, where promotional content is presented as personal experience or sincere recommendation rather than as advertising. The author argues that this lack of transparency creates risks for consumer autonomy, raises ethical and legal concerns, and creates a gap in both Iranian legal scholarship and applied regulatory practice.

The main objective is twofold. First, the article seeks to identify recurring patterns of hidden advertising in the Instagram content of Iranian influencers. Second, it aims to interpret those patterns through Islamic jurisprudential principles and broader legal standards in order to propose a more coherent regulatory framework. To achieve this, the paper connects content analysis with doctrinal analysis and comparative legal review, drawing on the legal experiences of the European Union, France, and the United States.

Conceptually, the paper treats hidden advertising as a form of commercial communication that is intentionally obscured from the audience. It relies on the persuasion knowledge model, which holds that audience awareness of persuasive intent can trigger cognitive resistance, and on related ideas such as parasocial interaction, where audiences develop a sense of intimacy with media personalities and therefore interpret their posts as personal rather than commercial. In the jurisprudential section, the paper also links hidden advertising to notions such as deception, concealment, and harm, especially where the commercial nature of a post is not disclosed.

Research Methodology

Methodologically, the study uses a descriptive, analytical, and guided qualitative content analysis design. The empirical sample consists of 145 content units from five Iranian influencers, selected purposively from five thematic domains: beauty, technology, humor and entertainment, music and art, and cinema. The author justifies the sample as information-rich and suitable for qualitative depth rather than statistical generalization.

The analysis was conducted in several steps. First, a researcher-made codebook was designed on the basis of the literature review and preliminary study. Second, the posts were screened through a semi-automated workflow using Python scripts to extract metadata such as publication date, likes, captions, and hashtags, while Gemini 1.5 Flash assisted with initial image analysis. Third, the researcher manually reviewed uncertain cases, distinguished organic content from sponsored content, and classified the material using a thematic coding process. The paper stresses that AI was used only for preliminary screening, not as a substitute for human judgment.

To strengthen trustworthiness, the study reports a pilot test on 25 content units and applies criteria associated with qualitative reliability and transferability, including careful documentation of decisions and iterative refinement of the coding scheme. The paper also frames the analysis as a directed content analysis, meaning that the coding categories were guided by prior theory and then refined through observation. This makes the method suitable for an interpretive project that seeks to identify legally relevant patterns rather than to measure prevalence in a statistically representative way.

Findings

The findings show that hidden advertising in Instagram content can be recognized through a cluster of recurring indicators rather than a single cue. These include the presence of financial or non-financial benefit, deliberate concealment of the commercial nature of the post, framing the product through a personal experience narrative, lack of explicit disclosure, and strategic placement of brand tags, referral links, or discount codes. The paper argues that when these features appear together, the content can be read as a concealed commercial message even when the text itself remains formally positive or apparently personal.

A key contribution of the findings is the distinction between overt advertising and hidden advertising as a matter of structure, not just wording. The study shows that a post may look like a genuine recommendation while still operating as a commercial message if the influencer benefits from it and if the audience is not given a clear disclosure. This is important because the article’s jurisprudential argument depends on the idea that deception can occur through omission and framing, not only through outright falsehood.

On the legal and jurisprudential side, the article maps these patterns onto concepts such as deception, concealment, harm, and consumer ignorance. It suggests that when a commercial motive is hidden, the practice may resemble juridical forms of misleading conduct and may justify regulatory intervention. However, the paper is careful to note that it is identifying visible signs of concealment, not proving hidden financial transactions in a definitive sense.

The comparative legal discussion supports the argument that transparency-based regulation is not only possible but increasingly standard in digital advertising governance. Drawing on the EU, France, and the United States, the paper proposes a regulatory model built around four pillars: transparency, proportionality, chain responsibility, and the right to information. In practical terms, this means that the influencer, the brand, and the platform should all have some share of responsibility, and sanctions should be calibrated to the seriousness of the concealment.

Conclusion

The conclusion is that hidden advertising in Instagram influencer culture should be regulated through a balanced framework that protects consumers without eliminating legitimate commercial activity. The article presents the principle of harm as one important basis for regulatory intervention, but it does not claim that legal intervention should be absolute or purely punitive. Instead, it argues for a measured and disclosure-oriented system that makes commercial intent visible, preserves market activity, and reduces misleading influence on audiences.

Overall, the paper’s main strength is that it combines empirical coding, jurisprudential reasoning, and comparative legal insight into one coherent argument. Its main limitation is also explicit: it identifies patterns of concealment rather than proving concealed payments directly, so its claims should be read as interpretive and regulatory rather than as forensic proof. Even so, the article offers a useful and defendable foundation for future work on influencer advertising, consumer protection, and digital transparency in the Iranian context.