FTC Going After Bloggers

Posted by scoop on June 28th, 2009 in Blog Advertising, Promotion |

Deborah Yao, an AP business writer, reported last week about the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) proposed guidelines that would allow them to go after bloggers who do not make proper disclosure when paid for blogging about products/services or when blogging about something when they haven’t even used the product/service. Note that the changes in the guidelines for endorsements are aimed not only at bloggers but all kinds of endorsers. If you want to read the full proposal of FTC you can view the PDF copy of their Notice to of Changes to Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.

With this news what has been the reaction on the net? As can be expected there are opposing opinions. As Brennon Slattery of PC World said, “It’s a good idea to crack down on this new wave of unprofessional behavior. Nonprofessional product review blogs should maintain the integrity of an Internet community where average citizens can freely share ideas without the threat of being swindled by a massive corporation. By accepting payment and benefits from these companies without specifically stating that is being done violates the trust of a community and serves to destroy its very foundation…. This is a good thing, but it also runs the risk of raising hairs on the necks of privacy watchers who aren’t so keen on having their personal blogs examined so closely.”

Aaron Wall’s post on how FTC’s change in guidelines will not really produce the results needed to regulate fake endorsements also makes sense. As he puts it, “What is absurd (to me at least) is how inefficient this process is. What needs to happen is better enforcement on ad networks, search engines, and merchants. Follow the money downstream rather than hunting for nickels upstream. The people who are making fake sites are doing so because they are paid to… You will never track them down one at a time because many domains are internationally owned, anonymously registered, and some domain names only cost a couple dollars to register.”

So there you go. While legit bloggers that do not make big bucks out of paid posts in their blogs will have to start watching their words more closely the ones that are out to defraud the world will still manage to sit pretty.