The government will seek to slow the spread of false “word of mouth” promotions in exchange for free product samples. Full Story »
Posted by Cynthia Gilbert - via OneRiot, New York Times (Most Emailed), Google News (Sci/Tech), Tom Friedman
An interesting, easy to read and informative article on new transparancy regulations to soon be applied to social media.
It crushes the idea that the Internet is separate from the kinds of concerns that have been attached to previous media,” said Clay Shirky, a professor at New York ... More »
A solid article. Mr. Arango provides a good variety of sources, from all sides of the debate; internet marketing associations, government regulators, academics, and a blogger. I only have two problems with the story. First, the response against the regulations from a law firm representing marketing groups representing companies that influenced blogger seemed canned and detached. Perhaps no company would go on record against these regulations. But I would have been nice to hear from a source that had a slightly more personal problem with the new rules. Secondly, I missed an account of how the FTC plans to enforce this new ruling. Certainly plans to control what bloggers say and how they say it is a huge regulatory undertaking.
Yes - this deals with lawful issues like libel and and maybe even copyright if the situation were right. I think that this sort of idea (regarding bloggers disclosing certain information) is fabulous. I think that it'll really help the public to sift through the garbage and only read what will be helpful to them at the end of the day.
Not a particularly well written piece. Author fails to clearly explain the various interests at play and the order of the content is confusing at best. It would have been better if more care had been taken in researching and crafting this article as it is an important change in rules for the users of the Internet, and may have a lot of unexpected outcomes.
This article is an excellent example of quality journalism. It is well sourced and well written. Tim Arango did an exceptional job of showing the big picture while still keeping the reading interesting and compelling.
I found this topic very interesting. Though I've always felt that the internet shouldn't been governed too strictly, I would definitely agree with the F.T.C.'s movement to make bloggers disclose their biases. Because of the sort of trust bond that bloggers and their readers have, I believe it is important for the bloggers who review products to show what may or may not be influencing them.
I have chosen to keep a distance from the blogging mainstream, though I know it has spread like a California wildfire. My blogging experience has been limited to my university journalism class. My teacher, had us create a blog for a several reasons; first it is the wave of the future, so we need to know how to navigate all electronic media; second it is a great place to practice writing articles and developing a style; and finally it gives us a chance to get feed back from our peers. Question: How long did the advertisers using electronic media think they were going to have free reign before the government stepped in? I am suprised it took this long for the regulations to be implimented. "Sorry people nothing is for free!" We ... More »
This is the first time I've really read about this topic, but it makes perfect sense to me. The F.T.C. isn't stopping the blogger but more so making the reader aware the products they may be promoting were given to them by the companies. It seems fair and it is bound to happen that there are some regulations on social media and companies advertising just as there is with anything else.
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