France's National Medical Council published a 10-principle charter in January 2025 for physician content creators, requiring disclosure and sourcing while banning personalized medical advice, unvalidated therapies, self-promotion, and paid ranking boosts. The rules follow earlier French disciplinary cases, including a 2012 penalty against an ophthalmologist who promoted his own clinic online and a 2015 case involving a doctor taking a revenue cut from a nutrition website he supervised.
The UK's General Medical Council says its social media guidance simply extends existing professional standards online, requiring doctors to identify themselves, disclose conflicts of interest, and avoid misrepresenting qualifications, while still permitting them to advertise services. The World Medical Association urges national bodies to address confidentiality, conflicts of interest, and misinformation more broadly.
A 2026 study of German plastic surgeons found nearly a third used Instagram for professional content, with almost half mixing personal and professional material, raising concerns about patient consent, blurred boundaries, and content overshadowing procedures. Experts note that using a medical title for commercial gain creates an inherent conflict of interest, regardless of platform.
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