I'm gonna be fried then! :D
Posted on 10/05/2009 8:34:32 PM PDT by LUV W
The Federal Trade Commission will try to regulate blogging for the first time, requiring writers on the Web to clearly disclose any freebies or payments they get from companies for reviewing their products.
The FTC said Monday its commissioners voted 4-0 to approve the final Web guidelines, which had been expected. Violating the rules, which take effect Dec. 1, could bring fines up to $11,000 per violation.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Could FreeRepublic be considered a blog?
Does products extend to political or quasi political services?
I see why it says it will go for advertisers. Going after bloggers would be thrown out by todays SCOTUS, but maybe not a wise latina.
Some folks consider it so....WE all know it’s a forum.
This can’t stand Constitutionally. It outlaws anonymity.
Think your average blogger has tens of thousands of dollars to fight this?
This is what you get when freedom dies.
I also recieved a free brick through the window.
Thankfully, FR ain’t no blog ...
No it does not. You can be anonomous as long as you are not paid for posting opinions. Basically, the FTC is trying to outlaw paid "trolls".
In principle it looks like it is intended to squash astroturfing on behalf of a commercial product. I frankly wasn’t aware that this was a significant problem. Most product reviewing bloggers who get freebies in kind would state that they had been shipped a sample of the product. Rewards not in kind might pose an ethical question, but again where has this been happening?
Hey where’s my free pickup truck? I’ve been saying good things about Ford. I want to disclose!
So the people who want to do the promoting will go to bloggers in other countries. Problem solved.
The list, ping
“Could FreeRepublic be considered a blog?”
Are you getting payments for what you write? I thought not...
But of course the trolls on NBC who push Cap and Trade on behalf of GE will never be bothered by the FTC.
BTTT
Hey, JJ! Good to see ya!
HiTech RedNeck wrote:
In principle it looks like it is intended to squash astroturfing on behalf of a commercial product. I frankly wasn’t aware that this was a significant problem. Most product reviewing bloggers who get freebies in kind would state that they had been shipped a sample of the product. Rewards not in kind might pose an ethical question, but again where has this been happening?
It is about cyber astroturfing. Specifically about review blogs and fake review sites that Search Engine Optimization companies and web marketing companies set up. They generate hundreds, possibly thousands of fake reviews, all with links to the product pages on the seller's web site. Then, when the search engines find these reviews with the links, the website selling the products gets a boost on their ranking for the keywords in the link test. And google and yahoo might also put the positive (fictional) reviews in their local search information for the business.
Mostly, these blogs exist on domain names you wouldn't go to by accident, just random strings of characters for the domain names. But when a local business, like a restaurant or a small store contracts with one of these unscrupulous marketers, you can get a lot of fictional reviews shown on the business’ result page in local searches.
| From the desk of cc2k: |
What Constitution?
Howdy Luv!
The involvement of rewards to independent bloggers to do this is the scenario I don’t see here, let alone being abused. If Joe’s Diner offered free dinners at Joe’s to bona fide reviewers who would in turn plug their restaurant, I don’t see the problem. If Joe’s Diner has somebody sitting at a computer submitting bogus public rave reviews to public comment web sites, that’s a different practice from the one that was just banned.
This is what happens when congress delegates its’ law making and punishment authority to appointed bureaucrats.
It’s all becoming about agenda, agenda, agenda...far-left being the order of the day.
Regulate everything.
My deal is...if you don’t want a product, for crying out
loud, don’t click on it! What’s so hard about that?
Will this include all of the bloggers employed by Obama?
We don’t get “paid” or at least I don’t. This is a forum though not a blog.
Endorsing a product pretty much requires signing the endorsement: there goes anonymity. Taking pay for an endorsement (whether money or some sort of barter) is “earning income,” so the IRS might be interested. But why does the FTC want to track just this kind of “commerce” on the internet? Like much that Obummer does, this makes no sense at first glance. I hope to keep “glancing” until we get more explanation.
What do you think?...they’ll be re-branded as another czar post.
Obviously a threat to free speech! (Of course only right wing speech is what they want to regulate)...
This type of transparent wallow into speech is always by the left trying to silence those that disagree! Unfortunately, for them, too many Americans understand the Constitution even though they have tried to eradicate that knowledge through the school system. Sooo...good luck you leftists, - continue this goal at your own peril!
Explanation is not one of the best qualitites of this administration.
They just want blind followers. I think they misunderestimate
Americans and their wish for independence!
Except if they work for Eric Holder's Justice Department.
Yes....parents now homeschool their kids in greater numbers
to keep their kids out of the clutches of the public school
agenda to turn them into little lefties.
....and bloggers will find a way to get around this idiotic
and invasive regulation....even though I personally hate
ads and come-ons on some blogs! It’s their business, not the
government’s!
How does the FTC intend to regulate these websites? Many are international and/or use offshore servers.
This seems like a waste of time.
As my favorite woman politician (sort of)...
You Betcha!
“The Federal Trade Commission will try to regulate blogging for the
first time, requiring writers on the Web to clearly disclose any
freebies or payments they get from companies for reviewing their products.”
Well, applied equitably, with diligent investigation by the FBI...
there’s probably the end to maybe 50-90% of the Democratic/Liberal bloggers.
And
About 5-10% of the conservative/Republican/libertarian bloggers.
IMHO.
But I won’t expect OBAMA’S FTC to be anything even having a semblance
of being “equitable”.
“Rumor mongering could be discouraged by levying fines on the perpetrators, those who spread false rumors may be inspired to hold their tongues if the financial consequences are severe enough.”
Regulatory Czar Cass Sunstein
Realli? Do newspapers have to meet the same requirement?
I know a lot of these are “Mom” bloggers. It starts innocently enough. Mom starts by talking about how she loves Nikes on her kids. Then Nike sends her kids free shoes, and Mom talks more about how wonderful Nike is but doesn’t disclose the free shoes and so on. Or Mom loves Cheerios and gets free Cheerios or Kelloggs sends her another free cereal to try and she plugs those but doesn’t disclose. I guess it has become a big bucks business and some of these Mom blogs have a lot of readers. I used to go to some of them a few years ago, but I started getting annoyed by the product pushing after a year or two and stopped going.
It actually has been a problem. Electronics accessories maker Belkin was recently shamed for paying something less than a dollar per ‘bad review’ (negative comments) placed on Amazon.com on competitor’s products and a few more cents per positive review for their products. The ad, which I think was on a larger site like craiglsist, was traced back to a specific executive. Shortly after that, another similar company was exposed for the same thing.
I think that the Dems have long claimed that Repub bloggers are receiving large sums from the Vast RIght Wing Conspiracy and have wanted exposure of the so called funders. When I read this post I assumed it was their first foray into focusing on who-recieves-money-from-whom, and it may yet be. By focusing on product astroturfing they may be establishing a foundation on which to go after conservative bloggers.
Well, let’s get started, I’ll go first :)
Dear FTC dudes and dudettes,
I do not receive any freebies or compensation in any form from FreeRepublic for any comments, referrals or research I do that I post to this forum.
Sincerely, BluePlum
there ya go, who’s next? lolol
I went to get the belkin link where the company was paying trolls to post reviews on Amazon. While doing so I was thinking over your question and even though paid trolls are an ‘issue’ I don’t think they are a problem warranting FTC involvement. WHen paid trolls were exposed, people started reading reviews more skeptically - problem kinda solved. I really think this is laying the groundwork to go combing through blogger’s websites looking for conservative funding. Here’s the Belkin’s link: http://thedailybackground.com/2009/01/16/exclusive-belkins-development-rep-is-hiring-people-to-write-fake-positive-amazon-reviews/
Well, to be honest, this is the first I heard about Belkin doing this, but it is an immediate and severe thumbs down for them in my eyes. Unless heads rolled in their management over this and they mended their ways, I would now try very hard to avoid buying their products.
Politics isn’t considered a trade, at least unless you live in Chicago or similar environs :-). This is after all the Federal Trade Commission, not the Federal Communications Commission.
When we said “free speech” we didn’t mean for you. :P
Now pay your taxes we need a raise. :)
THANK YOU! Due to sloppy reading I WAS thinking it was FCC! Tonight, I SLEEP! : )
Yes but if you go by the title you would believe they are going to tell us what we can post on this site, or google.blogs that everyone uses. The title was made to attract readers (maybe that needs regulation LOL)
Love it! LOL!
Maybe we need a form letter to send to the “dudes and dudettes”, along with our donations to FR.
What part of “Congress SHALL pass NO law...” don’t they understand?
Their answer to that is “lalalalalalalalala” with their
ears AND eyes covered!....and their brains on hold for
orders from headquarters.
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