Some of it is a variation of the “legitimate” advertising business. What is most dangerous is the social promotion of dangerous products and practices by these people. It is saddening to me though that we still allow what I think is too much puffery even within the “legitimate” advertising of products, but that is another discussion about what our laws legally allow.
If a company breaches safety laws or advertising codes, there usually is at least one process available to curtail the promotion. Influencers seem to be able to promote almost without legal consequences (some do have cases brought against them) over many areas including health, products, behaviour (e.g., the Wombat of current newsworthiness that has at least seemed to backfire).
Many of the Social Media avenues they use also seem reluctant to take effective action to rein a lot of it in. Of course they may be taking action, but to me at least it seems not to be the case.
