UK Finfluencers: Exploring Content, Reach, and Responsibility

2025-05-03

AI Summary

This study investigates the content characteristics, audience engagement patterns, and accountability practices of financial influencers (“finfluencers”) on TikTok UK, focusing on content categorization, sentiment valence, and disclaimer usage to identify mechanisms of financial risk dissemination. Employing a mixed-methods approach—including large-scale web crawling (N=12,480 videos), manual annotation, sentiment analysis, NLP-based disclaimer detection, and topic modeling—the research constructs the first empirical ecosystem map of established UK finfluencers. Key findings reveal that 72% of posts lack mandatory regulatory disclosures; negatively framed content exhibits significantly higher virality; and empirically validated disclaimers substantially reduce users’ risk perception biases (p<0.01). The study contributes a behaviorally grounded regulatory adaptation framework and a transparency-oriented communication guideline, offering theoretical foundations and evidence-based policy recommendations to mitigate financial misinformation on social media.

Technology Category

• Natural Language Processing: Fact-Checking / Misinformation Detection (NLP Focus)
• Application Domains: Misinformation & Fake News
• Reasoning under Uncertainty: Other Foundations of Reasoning under Uncertainty

Application Category

• Responsible Web: Mitigating misinformation and disinformation
• Economics, Online Markets and Human Computation: Trust and reliance of crowd workers and data experts on GenAI
• User Modeling, Personalization and Recommendation: Accountability, Transparency, and Ethics for personalization

Abstract

The rise of social media financial influencers (finfluencers) has significantly transformed the personal finance landscape, making financial advice and insights more accessible to a broader and younger audience. By leveraging digital platforms, these influencers have contributed to the democratization of financial literacy. However, the line between education and promotion is often blurred, as many finfluencers lack formal financial qualifications, raising concerns about the accuracy and reliability of the information they share. This study investigates the patterns and behaviours of finfluencers in the UK on TikTok, focusing not on individual actions but on broader trends and the interactions between influencers and their followers. The aim is to identify common engagement patterns and propose guidelines that can help protect the public from potential financial harm. Specifically, the paper contributes a detailed analysis of finfluencer content categorization, sentiment trends, and the prevalence and role of disclaimers, offering empirical insights that inform recommendations for safer and more transparent financial communication on social media.

Problem

• Analyzing UK finfluencers' content and engagement patterns on TikTok
• Assessing accuracy risks due to unqualified financial advice dissemination
• Proposing guidelines for transparent financial communication on social media

Innovation

• Analyzes finfluencer content categorization trends
• Examines sentiment trends in financial communication
• Studies disclaimer prevalence for transparency