Comments on: The FTC to Start Regulating Blogs? http://www.blogherald.com/2009/06/22/the-ftc-to-start-regulating-blogs/ The leading source of news covering social media and the blogosphere. Mon, 13 Feb 2012 02:30:55 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: wolfi http://www.blogherald.com/2009/06/22/the-ftc-to-start-regulating-blogs/comment-page-1/#comment-1105141 wolfi Thu, 24 Sep 2009 03:09:18 +0000 http://www.blogherald.com/?p=12912#comment-1105141 When we - in casual conversation - discuss a company or product, we are not required to tell our audiences whether or not there is a conflict of interest. Why would have to online? I don't like shills anymore than anyone else does, but how would they define these 'conflicts' ? Do you have to disclose that your spouse works for a particular company or that you 'live in Detroit', if you're supporting the US auto-maker? From a technical perspective, the only way one could enforce such a thing online, would be if the FTC had a much greater identification system tracking everyone's computer activities... When we – in casual conversation – discuss a company or product, we are not required to tell our audiences whether or not there is a conflict of interest. Why would have to online?

I don’t like shills anymore than anyone else does, but how would they define these ‘conflicts’ ? Do you have to disclose that your spouse works for a particular company or that you ‘live in Detroit’, if you’re supporting the US auto-maker?

From a technical perspective, the only way one could enforce such a thing online, would be if the FTC had a much greater identification system tracking everyone’s computer activities…

]]> By: RaceDriven http://www.blogherald.com/2009/06/22/the-ftc-to-start-regulating-blogs/comment-page-1/#comment-1069060 RaceDriven Mon, 22 Jun 2009 16:24:27 +0000 http://www.blogherald.com/?p=12912#comment-1069060 I believe that the FTC wants all articles, all blogs to come with a real name, no more blogging under Mr. X or some screen name, but that isn't entirely a bad thing, you guys here at The Blog Herald do it, I do it, my blog says my name on it, of course that is for credibity as well. However it all depends upon how far they want to go to get to bloggers, are bloggers going to be held to media standards? I would say yes, they will. As for the example up above, you should have to idenitify who you are on your blog when it comes to products promotions, tell people this is sponsored or your an employee, consumers are looking for a neutral opinion on a product, not some employees opinion, that doesn't help, it hurts. But like I said, how far is the FTC going to go? I believe that the FTC wants all articles, all blogs to come with a real name, no more blogging under Mr. X or some screen name, but that isn’t entirely a bad thing, you guys here at The Blog Herald do it, I do it, my blog says my name on it, of course that is for credibity as well.

However it all depends upon how far they want to go to get to bloggers, are bloggers going to be held to media standards? I would say yes, they will.

As for the example up above, you should have to idenitify who you are on your blog when it comes to products promotions, tell people this is sponsored or your an employee, consumers are looking for a neutral opinion on a product, not some employees opinion, that doesn’t help, it hurts.

But like I said, how far is the FTC going to go?

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