New research from the finance platform Paxful has found that influencers using social media platform TikTok are misleading people with poor financial advice.
Over 1,200 videos from 50 different finance influencers with a combined 9.5m followers were studied by Paxful. The Tiktok videos had a total of 28.4m views and 3.6m likes.
Out of the videos analysed, 14% promoted certain financial decisions lacking a disclaimer, and only 10% of influencers clearly described their necessary qualifications needed in order to give advice.
Six out of ten influencers had no disclaimer in their bios, and over half of the influencers analysed produced least one video that Paxful found was misleading.
TikTok content is mostly accessed by young and financially uneducated users. Over two thirds of Tiktok users are between the ages of 13 and 24, and TikTok videos carrying the #Finance tag have a total of 1.3bn views.
Financial psychologist Dr Brad Klontz stated: “It is always important to research the qualifications of influencers offering financial advice. It is critical to see if these ideas are suited to you. With regard to financial advice, it is very important to seek out advice that is specific to your unique situation and needs.”
The recent GameStop stock fiasco has helped increase interest among young people about investing and using social media to get rich quick. However Dr Klontz urged users to “avoid creators who make highly specific recommendations, advising followers to purchase a specific stock or insurance product”.