The FTC will begin, as of Dec. 1, 2009, to regulate the contents of Blogs posted on the internet. 16CFR Part 255 is the exact legislation in question, titled "Guidelines Concerning Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising".
This regulation is targeted at blogs and other forms of internet advertising that publish product endorsements or testimonials. The regulation states, in a nutshell, that anyone publishing such endorsements or testimonials must disclose if they received free product or other compensation for providing/publishing those endoresements or testimonials. The goal is to force disclosure by folks who are paid or otherwise compensated for saying good things about products on their blogs. There are financial penalties for violations.
OK .....
In essence, I don't have a problem with that. There are all manner of web sites/blogs out there who publish phony product reviews while getting paid to do so. Folks see those reviews, buy the product, and get screwed, without knowing that the reviews were phony to start with. It's a problem.
However, it is also troublesome. This is the first step I know of by the US Government to regulate internet content. If this regulation was the end of it, I wouldn't have a problem. However, when has government ever been satisfied with making one small step? Always, ALWAYS, they followup with more regulation, expanding their scope and power. With the bunch that is in Washington now, I wouldn't be at all surprised if an expanded effort, perhaps based on the 'Fairness Doctrine', begins to be discussed. Once the precedent of regulation is established ......
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2 comments:
I smell a rat. There are a lot of really horrible things on the internet that nobody seems concerned about regulating. This is just the govenments way of getting their foot in the door.
Margot is 100% correct on that, and if that happens God forbid, we might have to communicate by Twitter, ugh.
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