Apparently you can’t believe everything you read on the Internet. Lucky for us, a consumer advocacy group has prodded the Federal Trade Commission into placing regulations on blogs offering testimonials. Beginning December 1, scribes on the Internet will be required to disclose whether they received payments or free goods in exchange for reviewing products. Internet chatter is abuzz with how this might affect music bloggers, but since there are literally thousands of such websites it doesn’t seem likely every sixteen year old kid with a Wordpress account will face potential monetary fines up to $11,000, cease and desist, and various other legal hardships. But, you know, BEWARE! On a positive note, the new FTC regulations might help prevent reviews like this. According to an article on NPR, the FTC insists they intend to focus their wrath on larger blogs or the advertisers themselves. [Via: Idolator]
FTC Impose New Disclosure Guidelines for Blogs
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7 Responses
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I think those new regulations are great! (Disclaimer: I was paid to write that.) |
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This could also effect the more prominent technology blogs (Engadget, Gizmodo, etc.) as well. Hell, the whole Gawker Media group could come under fire now that I think about it... |
| Ollie |
I think this could get bad. Generally guidelines like this are only precautionary, so this hopefully won't have much impact, but I'm not keen on the idea that bloggers are now being held so accountable for ostensibly trivial circumstances. |
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I'm not even sure I really understand them, or if they're specific enough to be enforceable. As far as I understand, they're saying "amateur" sites need to disclose, but trusted "professional" sites don't. I'm not sure where the line is. Also, how will it need to be disclosed? On every review? In the Terms of Service? Maybe I just haven't studied it enough to know who the rules will affect and how they will be enforced. Anybody have any ideas? |
| Paul Levinson |
Here is my take on this issue http://paullevinson.blogspot.com/2009/10/ftc-wrong-to-regulate-deceitful.html |
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FTC: We'll Never Fine A Blogger! http://www.businessinsider.com/ftc-well-never-fine-a-blogger-2009-10 |
So if people get paid to post sponsored reviews, they could get fined? I don't do that stuff on my own site, just trying to make sense of these regulations.