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FTC States Bloggers Must Disclose Paid Reviews

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the competition-for-best-review-reward-begins-now dept.

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."

13 of 310 comments (clear)

  1. Astroturfing. by JCSoRocks · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.
    1. Re:Astroturfing. by moogsynth · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Maybe the astroturfing garbage will finally stop... or at least be more obvious.

      That's pretty naive. Of course it will continue. Although it will be obvious to you or me, it will still be somewhat deceptive. They'll probably try and portray the freebies themselves as positive endorsements for Company X. "Luckily for me they even included a stylish bag to carry it around in! These will be sold separately and I must say they look super stylish!!!!1"

    2. Re:Astroturfing. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Nothing good will come of this except more $$$ for more government positions or contractors.

    3. Re:Astroturfing. by mrjohnson · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Not in time to prevent the massive astroturfing campaign for Windows 7, however...

    4. Re:Astroturfing. by mcmonkey · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Why would you hope for someone with similar biases?

      For something like game reviews, yes, if the reviewer and I have liked the same games in the past then I have a better shot at liking the new game that just got the good review.

      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?

      If I read a web log written from a different perspective, I might actually learn something (I know--scary thought).

      At least then when I walk away with my same old biases, they've been positively reenforced by standing up to counterargument rather than coming out of the echo chamber of people who all agree.

    5. Re:Astroturfing. by kannibal_klown · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Personally for reviews I like to find the ones reporting problems or other low-scoring responses.

      Great, 80% of the owners on the forum LOVE this car and think it's god's gift. Good for you.

      I want to read from that other 20% where people are talking about rattling, quirks, and bad experiences.

      Those 80% are usually from Joe Sixpack applauding the number of cup holders and the glovebox, or couldn't tell a quality DLP tv from a 10-year-old analog projector TV.

      I like to get some of the good reviews too, and sometimes a bad review is just the writer's bias showing, but I find it informative.

  2. What about politicians? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Stop calling it lobbying and call it by its real name: bribery. Will the politicians be fined to death in slices of $11K?

  3. What's a blogger? by girlintraining · · Score: 3, Insightful

    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
    1. Re:What's a blogger? by Velorium · · Score: 3, Insightful

      No. This is applying to reviewers that are getting the reviewed item for FREE OF CHARGE. If you bought the item, then you don't have to bother. The point of this is to make bias due to incentives given by the company/manufacturer a bit more obvious. For example, rewind to 2007. Say John Smith is set on reviewing HP computer that is running Vista and doesn't know much about the system requirements. He's not really looking to spend too much, but is still buying one of the newer computers Vista is being sold on. Because of not wanting to spend extra money, he decides he will go with the option to have only 1gb of ram on the computer. HP knows the system requirements better than John smith does for Vista and says hey, we'll upgrade that to 4gb of ram for free. Because of this possibly subtle but important difference, John's experience of running Vista would be much different than the average buyer only buying a computer with 1gb of ram; and publish his review accordingly. HP and Vista get their good review for throwing in the extra ram, and the average consumer suffers with the computer with less ram, and HP still receiving money from that customer. Was John's intent to be biased or show Vista in a better light? No. But it will show something of the intents of the companies, if not John by notion of this little factoid.

  4. This is Crazy by colganc · · Score: 3, Insightful

    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.

  5. US only by Roger+W+Moore · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.

  6. Re:US only by pete6677 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    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.

  7. Biases by Blink+Tag · · Score: 3, Insightful

    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.