Michael Dolan Dot Com

Monday, October 5th, 2009

The FTC decides to regulate blogging (sponsored blogging)

Interesting news out of the FTC. They’re going to start regulating blogs as they would an advertisement – though it doesn’t seem 1:1 in terms of advertising claims regulations and blogs. I do think this is a good move (perhaps overdue). Some bloggers like those at Redmonk have been disclosing their possible (even remote) conflicts of interest with clients for a long time (as financial analysts would be required).  IBM bloggers all have disclaimers on their websites. It looks like blogs are “growing up”.

How long will it take for WordPress users to create a “sponsored by” plugin ;-)

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/10/05/technology/AP-US-TEC-Bloggers-FTC.html

The FTC will require that writers on the Web clearly disclose any freebies or payments they get from companies for reviewing their products. The commission also said advertisers featuring testimonials that claim dramatic results cannot hide behind disclaimers that the results aren’t typical.

The FTC said its commissioners voted 4-0 to approve the final guidelines, which had been expected. The guides are not binding law, but rather interpretations of law that hope to help advertisers comply with regulations. Violating the rules, which take effect Dec. 1, could result in various sanctions including a lawsuit.