FTC Issues New Rules for Native Advertising on the Internet (blockadblock.com)

popo writes: Native Advertising, or advertorial content that's camouflaged to mimic a site's original content is all the rage among web publishers these days particularly as ad-blocking takes a bigger and bigger bite out of traditional web-advertising revenues. Well the FTC reiterated its position on native ads and may have just slammed the door shut on this "alternative" form of online advertising. The verdict: If it's not clearly marked "advertising", it may be considered misleading. And by misleading, the FTC means illegal. Of course, from an adblocking perspective, once you clearly indicate something is an ad — you make it all the more easy to block. Which defeats one of the primary goals of native ads to begin with.

Comments

Re:Good - but it was going to happen anyway

[serviscope_minor]

I'm sure that's why it's suddenly all happened at once and the FTC has come out in force against it right? If it would have happened without gamergate, then I'm sure you can prove that they if they hadn't engaged in said campaign then it would have happened eventually as well.

Correlation is not causation. The onus is on you to prove that the gaters had any effect on the FTC. The underlying cause (the rise of so-called native ads on the internet) is clearly the cause for both of these things. What is not clear is that the gaters had any effect on the FTC.

As for if it would have happened eventually---almost certainly. After all, there have been regulations on the books for years and years making it illegal to not declare the ads presence properly. IOW it already happened years before gamergate existed, some skeezballs have found a "loophole" and the FTC is closing it. ...

And on to your other point...

Ah yes the "they made rape threats so it's OK that we made rape threats".

How very "ethical" of you.