Izzy just wants to tell the world about her skincare regime. The blond teenager has suffered with acne for years – at school, one bully cruelly nicknamed her Dimple Pimple. She has tried so many face washes – she even had prescription meds. It’s no wonder her story, told in a series of tweets earlier this month, resonated with hundreds of people, and was “liked” on the site more than 1,000 times.

Thankfully, there is a happy ending. One “random Tuesday about six months ago”, Izzy found a cure for her troublesome skin. Coffee Creations coffee scrub!

This Twitter thread – which looks like it was sent by an earnest young woman – is an advert posted by a corporation in a process known as “astroturfing” (like the artificial turf, it might look authentic, but it’s not the real thing). Izzy’s thread – and the countless others “she” has posted like it – sum up just how complicated online advertising is today. That’s why, although I’m happy that dozens of celebrities have promised the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to be clearer about the way they advertise online, I wonder if it’s too little, too late.

Sixteen influencers – including models, reality TV stars, and actors – have vowed to the CMA that they will be clear in their online posts about whether they have been paid (in money or gifts) to promote a product. This comes five years after the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) first introduced #ad, a way for internet celebrities to clearly mark paid-for posts.

Social media celebs earn thousands of pounds by posting adverts for brands, and this new commitment to transparency is commendable. Young, impressionable audiences deserve to know whether someone they admire is truly recommending a product or being paid to do so. Under the CMA’s remit, influencers who break the rules can be fined and even jailed for up to two years.

And yet, is anyone really deterred? In September 2017, the ASA upheld a complaint against Geordie Shore star Sophie Kasaei for posting a picture of the diet drink Flat Tummy Tea on Instagram, alongside unverified claims that the drink aided weight loss. This was arguably a win for regulators, but Kasaei was undeterred. On 2 January 2018, she told her 1.9 million Instagram followers about her new range of diet supplements, SZKNutrition. Earlier this month, she posted about the supplements again – without #ad or a mention of her recent trip to an exclusive exercise bootcamp in Marrakech.

Ultimately, the public continues to be misled – and things quickly get even more complicated. In December 2017, a 22-year-old American named Jake tweeted a picture of Extra chewing gum alongside a story about his blossoming romance with a classmate. The tweet looked like an ad – the brand was prominent, and Jake even used Extra’s official social media slogan #GiveExtraGetExtra. Yet when I contacted Extra, they were emphatic that this was not a paid promotion.

Why would a young person create a social media post that looks like an ad, even when they’re not being paid? Recently the Atlantic’s Taylor Lorenz revealed that hundreds of wannabe-influencers are faking brand deals by posting advertisements that seem paid for, using #ad, so that they look more famous than they are. Good luck, CMA!

Two recent documentary films about the ill-fated Fyre festival have been getting lots of attention – but no influencer who was paid to advertise the disastrous event (which saw attendees at the music festival stranded in the Bahamas with limited food and water) has been punished or faced opprobrium. Kendall Jenner reportedly received $250,000 to advertise Fyre, and did so without using #ad. She hasn’t been fined, or even spoken publicly about the deal.

The CMA is making progress, and celebrities who are truly committed to change are commendable, but there are far too many shady influencers who continue to blur the lines – and get away with it.

My personal favourite comes from Jenner’s sister, Khloé Kardashian. On 12 June 2017, the reality star posted a candid caption about her love of a sugary hair supplement. “This is more than just an #Ad because I truly love these delicious, soft, chewy vitamins,” she wrote on Instagram. And they say the Kardashians aren’t clever!

There are countless other examples: one famous British YouTuber has been known to place the word “ad” on the bottom right hand corner of his YouTube thumbnails, conveniently behind YouTube’s timestamps – while his girlfriend posts affiliated links to the products she uses in her videos without revealing that she’s paid every time they’re clicked. It prompts the question – is this industry even possible to regulate?

Influencers will tell you where the dress they’re wearing is from and the name of the lipstick they used – are they being helpful or are they advertising? I’ve written about this phenomenon for five years, and I can’t tell. How on earth could a pre-teen? How on earth can the CMA?

• Amelia Tait is a journalist who writes about tech and internet phenomena