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FTC To Crack Down On False Claims From Bloggers

Posted on: Monday, 22 June 2009, 09:47 CDT

The Federal Trade Commission has issued new guidelines that would allow the agency to tighten its control over misleading claims on blog sites.

Bloggers who often review a product may be tightlipped about receiving perks from the company that markets the product. Their reading audience often peruses the Web, reading several blogs to find out if a product or service is best for them.

Now the FTC has announced new guidelines that, once approved, would allow the agency to investigate bloggers as well as the firms that pay the bloggers to represent their product or service in a good light.

"If you walk into a department store, you know the (sales) clerk is a clerk," Rich Cleland, assistant director in the FTC's division of advertising practices, told the Associated Press.

"Online, if you think that somebody is providing you with independent advice and ... they have an economic motive for what they're saying, that's information a consumer should know."

Journalists and representatives of other sectors of media are discouraged from taking free gifts of any kind from the sources they are covering. In the blogosphere, the rules are often lax.

"Rules are set by the individuals who create the blog," said Lee Rainie, director of the Pew Internet and American Life Project.

"Some people will accept payments and free gifts, and some people won't. There's no established norm yet,” she told the AP.

The new FTC rules would involve ensuring that the bloggers were able to back up the claims made on their sites. The Justice Department would be involved in any suits against bloggers.

But some bloggers see the guidelines as a potential reason to quit posting altogether.

However, others believe more uniformity will attract advertisers toward the blogosphere, creating more revenue for bloggers.

Still, Robert Cox, president of Media Bloggers Association, says "it would always be better for bloggers to self-police."

"We have laws on the books. They apply to everybody, not just people who write blogs," he told the AP.

Some firms are now paying microbloggers to use Twitter to post short ads. The FTC said those posts would also be covered by the new guidelines.

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On the Net:

• FTC
• Pew Internet and American Life Project

Source: redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports

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