FTC attempts to restrict online commerse
The Wall Street Journal is reporting on the FTC’s recent decision to fine bloggers for not explicitly stating any compensation received for writing a blog. The FTC will now supposedly fine bloggers for writing reviews of products or services without specifying that they’ve been compensated for it. While the FTC has much bigger problems they should be dealing with like metered cell phone usage, misleading multi-year cell contracts, and software patents in general they are now focused in a direction they have absolutely no jurisdiction over. Will we now have federal blog readers employed with US tax dollars to just read blogs all day and make sure no one is writing reviews without specifying compensation for the review?
The whole logistics of enforcement of such fines is laughable in my opinion. First, what if I host my site in another country? Will these fines still apply? Second, a lot of blog sites have multiple authors with no realistic way for a site owner to ensure every writer is following the rules. Who will be responsible if a writer blogs against the rules? Finally, what will the FTC do if my site in another country and I am marketing specifically for US customer? Are they planning a great US firewall like China so they can excerpt more control over our online commerce and enforce penalties like blocking overseas sites?
Why the FTC even care? Marketing companies have been hiring bloggers to write reviews for years on sites like Pay per Post. My guess is the FTC is really less interested in protecting consumers and instead focused on brainstorming ways to help potentially generate more revenue for the US government and themselves. Its a laughable waste of tax dollars in my opinion.
NOTICE ON COMPENSATION: I received no compensation from the Wall Street Journal or the FTC for writing this blog.