There is a bit of discussion today about a recent ruling by the Federal Trade Commission efforts to regulate blogging.
The FTC is seeking to require bloggers to disclose any handouts, freebies, affiliations or paid product reviews in order to protect consumers who might otherwise be misled.
FTC: Bloggers, Testimonials Need Better Disclosure
“The FTC said its commissioners voted 4-0 to approve the final guidelines, which had been expected. The guides are not binding law, but rather interpretations of law that hope to help advertisers comply with regulations. Violating the rules, which take effect Dec. 1, could result in various sanctions including a lawsuit.”
“The FTC’s proposal made many bloggers anxious. They said the scrutiny would make them nervous about posting even innocent comments.”
“To placate such fears, [Rich] Cleland [assistant director of the FTC's advertising practices division] noted that the FTC’s enforcement priorities make it more likely an advertiser would be targeted for disclosure or testimonial violations than a blogger. The exception would be a blogger who runs a ‘substantial’ operation that violates FTC rules and already received a warning, he said.”
I think it will be interesting to watch how all of this shakes out. I’m unsure how the FTC will define a “substantial” blogging operation, or how it intends to enforce these guidelines. I’m not the only one who is confused.
The web has traditionally been embraced as one of the few places in this world that is almost completely unregulated. That lack of oversight on content has allowed new ideas about politics, business and commerce to emerge, be discussed and modified and perfected. While there is some garbage out there, I start to get nervous when I hear about a governing body’s attempts to filter and control that content.
Hardy Wallace, a wine blogger from Atlanta currently on assignment in Napa Valley, California had some interesting thoughts today:
“I do know a number of non-wine bloggers that do a ton of pay for play and don’t disclose that to their readers. I have an issue with that, but one that I want no part in attempting to regulate.”
“The positive we fail to see is that by only regulating the online/blogosphere piece, we instantly make blogging more credible than traditional media. Bloggers receive 1/100th of the freebies, trips, dinners, samples, jet boat rides, cougar hunts, and Spice Girls tickets than traditional media.”
“Disclosure for us is easy. Disclosure for legacy media is not easy or pretty and comes with a much higher cost.”
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