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FTC to regulate blogs
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This week the FTC made official a plan for regulating blogs that it had been considering back in June. Under the new guidelines bloggers who receive any kind of monetary or in-kind incentive to review a product must publicly disclose the arrangement. Failure to do so can result in an $11,000 fine.
The question most are asking is how the FTC plans to enforce the guideline. Both the sheer enormity of the Internet, coupled with the general anonymity of most bloggers could make enforcement difficult, if not impossible. The Internet is also a borderless environment, which could call into question the FTC's jurisdiction. What, for example, can the FTC do if a blogger living in Canada receives payment from an American company to post a positive review? What if the blog post is made on a foreign website? Just how far can the FTC go in pursuing violators?
The new guidelines seem to lack teeth as well as specifics. Very little will be gained from the effort, yet the guidelines open the door to more government intervention in the Internet. It should not be the government's role to protect consumers. Consumers need to protect themselves. Children are taught from an early age to see through the various marketing approaches taken in television and print advertising. Why can't the same be applied to the Internet? Why should a consumer take a favorable product review at face value? Or a negative review, for that matter.
Anyone who had read William Gibson's "Pattern Recognition" will realize that even the conversations we have with strangers in public can be suspect (I should state that I have in no way been compensated for referencing this book). The book, though fiction, offers some not-that-far-fetched ideas for viral marketing not involving the Internet. A marketing company hires young, attractive people to bring up certain products in their normal conversations at clubs, parties, restaurants, etc. Product placement in movies and television has been a staple for years now.
Americans should be accustomed by now to the notion that everything they read, see, or hear may have been subverted as a marketing tool. The Internet is only the latest medium to be used in this way. Anyone with an account on Twitter can relate how more and more of their invites come from entrepreneurs trying to sell something or build up a following to market to.
In an age when people auction themselves off to become human marketing, Americans should learn never to take things at face value. Especially on the Internet. The FTC can pretend they can protect consumers from unethical behavior, but the reality is that we are all on or own.
If you enjoyed this article, here are some others you may wish to read:
- Sarbanes-Oxley and Obama's regulatory overhaul
- Online advertising : friend or foe?
- ABU Games proves traditional advertising still works
