In what is said to be "the first time the FTC tries to patrol systematically what bloggers say and do online," the FTC is drawing up guidelines regarding how bloggers review products. According to the source below, the rules are expected to go into effect sometime late this summer. If someone is found to be in violation of the new regulations, the FTC can go after any individual blogger or company that makes the product being reviewed. I scan the Internet for product reviews almost every time I have to make a significant purchase, just to possibly avoid buying a brand that's bad news or in an attempt to find an especially good product. The FTC's issue is that some people are reviewing products online that they are getting (sometimes big) compensation for without disclosing that information. The article quoted a study that indicated some bloggers are getting as much as $3000 for just posting 200 words about a product, not to mention free vacations and other pricey perks. These regulations would also cover Twitter and any other media that someone uses to do a product review.
While I'm not a big fan of any attempts at Internet regulation in general, I can at least see the point behind someone being forced to confess that they received an all-expenses-paid trip to the resort they just raved about on their blog. One part of the regulation that seems sketchy to me, however, is that they will also have rules regarding your average blogger linking to the websites of products they mention, which is pretty much standard in the blog world. As you can imagine, the article includes quotes from bloggers who are not exactly happy about the news. Read more about this here.
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Interesting find, Lisa! I agree with you about not being for Internet regulation in general, but if these new processes will help weed out those "bloggers" who are being paid to leave comments and/or reviews on products, then I'm all for it. It just seems like a conflict of interest to me.
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