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FTC States Bloggers Must Disclose Paid Reviews
An anonymous reader writes to tell us that in the first revision of how endorsements and testimonials work since 1980, bloggers will now be required by the FTC to clearly disclose freebies or payments they received for product reviews. "the commission stopped short Monday of specifying how bloggers must disclose any conflicts of interest. The FTC said its commissioners voted 4-0 to approve the final guidelines, which had been expected. Penalties include up to $11,000 in fines per violation. The rules take effect Dec. 1."
Maybe the astroturfing garbage will finally stop... or at least be more obvious.
You are using English. Please learn the difference between loose and lose; they're, there, and their; your and you're.
Stop calling it lobbying and call it by its real name: bribery. Will the politicians be fined to death in slices of $11K?
So what exactly constitutes a "blogger", or a "paid review"? If I post a twitter update, is that a "blog"? What about a note on facebook, is that a blog? What if I don't call it a blog, but call it a public diary instead?
#fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
I do a lot of book reviews, I don't see that slowing down. I can't imagine anyone thinks book reviewers buy all those books, especially the ones they review before the book is publicly available. I also never imagined that movie reviewers paid to see the films they review, even though they didn't say it explicitly. Adding in some boilerplate about being given a ticket of the film or a review copy of the book isn't a big deal, so I don't care, but I don't think it is really necessary.
What else get's reviewed here? Some games sometimes. I think usually everything else is a link to a review done by someone else for the most part. So I don't really imagine it's going to have a huge impact on the reviews that are posted here. Maybe I'm forgetting something though.
What I don't see this stopping is the people who get paid to comment in the discussions of those reviews. Or anything talking about various companies products. Who's going to take the time to try and figure out who all those people are and then prove the link between them and their employer?
It's hard to believe that's how Micronians are made. Why don't we see it right now by having you both kiss one another?
I can't believe they're doing this. I don't care if a review is paid or not. If I can't think analytically or critical about a review(er) then I deserve what I get. How does the process even work. Can I go around submitting tons of accusations to an FTC site about any random blog? How are they defining a blog or blogger? How does a blogger defend themselves from accusations? On a separate issue, this is really terrible reporting. There is almost no information.
IMO, lobbying just needs to be completely gotten rid of as it has become simply a means to legally bribe publicly elected officials into corporate agendas into law.
Same for campaign donations.. every attempt, that I've seen, to put restrictions on either of these practices has been quickly circumvented.
The FTC is wrong to suggest that a "product review" is some easy to identify thing. If I write that I love the Slap-Chop am I reviewing it? When does it change from opinion to review? Will a lawyer need to review everything before it's posted, or should we trust that government won't try to misuse this?
Writing on the web covers *all* modes, from babel to academic works. Regulating it as commercial is just wrong.
tomorrow who's gonna fuss
The FTC rules only apply to people in the US. Once again this is an example of how one country's laws are meaningless on the Internet. They will simply pay non-Americans to astroturf. You cannot tell whether someone is typing with an American accent on the net - although cultural references can sometimes give it away.
Companies won't even have to move their astroturfing overseas. They'll just have to redefine compensation and promotions.
It's much like what political lobbyists do to get around laws against bribery: call it something else. It's no longer a paid review; it's promotional consideration, a free sample, whatever the law did not yet address. The law will not get rid of paid reviews anymore than campaign finance reform got rid of influence peddling.
I would rather see people educated instead of regulated.
Let's cut to the net net (Just reading Raymond Chens blog, and I decided to get with the Microsoft speak). I am not in the US. I do not post in the US. My English is excellent, and I am able to either compose my own "reviews", or would be willing to simply post your reviews.
My rates are reasonable, and I am willing to work under aliases.
Contact me via email for your astroturfing and viral marketing needs. Payment accepted in US Currency, Euros, Canadian Currency, or (if I can actually be convinced that the product doesn't blow), product.
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In other words, WTF are you thinking? All that will happen is that the astroturf business will "offshored". Next, the buying of these services has to be made illegal, but that will take years (actually, I predict never), but when/if that happens, the astroturf campaigns will simply be managed in an offshored basis as well.
Just another "Cubible(sic) Joe" 2 17 3061
However for political and social commentary, what do I get from reading a web log written from the point of view of my own biases? Someone to tell me what I already believe so I can respond with how insightful the poster is?
What do you get? You get to be like the vast majority of people. We (often unconsciously) seek out those that are similar to us as a way of validating ourselves. If others are like us, we must be pretty good people. If (smart|rich|famous|powerful) people think the same way we do, we must then be more valuable. Feeding our self-image leads to some pretty potent biases.
And while you certainly deserve kudos for seeking out those with conflicting opinions in order to challenge your world views, it is still highly likely you're seeking out those like you. (You're on Slashdot, for goodness sakes.) Most of your friends are likely of similar age, marital status, education, and ethnicity. They have similar interests to you.
Trying to overcome these biases can be a good thing. Just don't think you've beaten them.
I'm guessing you got modded troll because you said "We have a White House that can't even stand the idea of people criticizing the president without getting reported to flag@whitehouse.gov". The purpose of that email was not because Obama couldn't stand being criticized. It was because republicans were blatently lying about health care in order to obstruct passing a health care bill. If all they are doing was criticizing him, I don't think Obama could have cared less. It was the trolling they were looking to be kept up on. Granted, I too have issues with the way they went about the process, but for you to say it was because he was being criticized...well, I too would mod you troll if you hadn't asked for an explanation.
Of course they do. In a capitalist system, the government's primary job is to "protect property rights" -- i.e., to put its firearms at the beck and call of the business class.
If businesses didn't have government guns for enforcement, there would be few rent payments made.
Let me also direct you to the use of the historical use of the army and National Guard as strike busters.
Tom Swiss | the infamous tms | my blog
You cannot wash away blood with blood