In an announcement on its German site, publisher Electronic Arts (EA) has detailed new rules requiring streamers and other "influencers" to use special labels to indicate supported or promotional content.
"Gamers and viewers must be able to see whether they are independent and editorial content, supported placements of messages, or advertising," EA said. "Any YouTuber, streamer or otherwise active influencer, who enters into a collaboration with Electronic Arts in their content creation and does not yet use their own labeling system, is now requested to use our hashtags and watermarks."
The aforementioned hashtag/watermarks combinations are #supportedbyEA, which covers all content that EA has supported, such as through invitations to events or shows, or the coverage of travel expenses (the publisher will have no direct influence over the creation of this content, however), and #advertisementEA, which is actual advertising that covers "content that EA could have editorial influence over or content that EA itself has created."
Text and image-based content like that found on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram must use hashtags placed directly in the message, while in video or streamed content, the watermark has to be displayed, or EA's involvement "explicitly mentioned," at the beginning of the video.
"All the activities of EA are under the motto 'Players First,' which means that we take the concerns and concerns of players and fans seriously at all times and react to them," EA wrote. "We want to create transparency with the markings and help to ensure that supported content and advertising are immediately identifiable as such."
