Blog Speech to be Restricted by FTC

First let me say that I have never once received any type of payment, either goods or money, for anything I published for the past decade. Truth be told, at present, I would like to change that, but it hasn’t started to happen yet.

Now I see that the Federal Trade Commission is going after bloggers who write about products. PCWorld broke the news today in an article titled, “FTC Eyes Blogs for Conflicts of Interest.” Therein, Brennon Slattery reports:

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission wants to crack down on this, the latest form of payola, as part of its longstanding charge to protect consumers from false and misleading advertising. In order to do so, the organization proposes searching blogs for misleading information and failure to publicize potential conflicts of interest. That means any blog that reviews products -- whether it is padded by corporations or not -- is subject to a thorough examination.

FTC’s proposed new guidelines, Guidelines Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising, is available in PDF format for all to read. The problem is that the text is 86 pages long and the public comment time ended last January. Therefore , look for this stuff to become regulation/law sometime this summer.

So, the FTC plans to go after bloggers who are being compensated for what they write. And, apparently, that compensation can be in any form, not just dollars.

Personally speaking, I would not feel a bit bad about openly disclosing that I was paid, or received free equipment, to write about a product. All technical blogs and websites I read always do that. Nonetheless, we have a freedom of speech clause in our Constitution and I expect this new FTC foolishness to be tossed out just as soon as it gets tested in court.

After all, I also write about vitamins, minerals and other health food and preparations. Need I always tell which ones I use and where I got them? I purchase them myself, but must I disclose that now? I think not . . . and I will not! The same thing applies to electronic devices. Often I drive to wherever I can get hands-on the device for a couple hours before writing about it. And, no, I do not disclose that when I write. That way, I am free to write about the bad points, as well as the good.

Anyway, I think that the FTC is opening up a can of worms that is going to come back and bite them in the butt at some point. Because, if this one is tossed out by a court, there’s a very good chance that a few other of their associated draconian rules and regulations will be tossed out at the same time.