Internet Policy Issue

The Federal Trade Commission has recently decided that they will begin to regulate product review bloggers. Essentially the FTC's new policy states that bloggers who are compensated in anyway for their review of a product must disclose the compensation in their blog. Many feel that these new guidelines are to prevent faulty reviews, as most bloggers are not backed by the same ethical standards as say a journalist. Also a person who is receiving payment for their review would logically be expected to give a positive review. Perhaps the group of bloggers who is most affected by these new FTC standards are those who review books. These people often receive their books for free from publishers or other sources in order to review them. There seems to be some logic behind these new FTC guidelines, however, many question their appropriateness.

I find it somewhat difficult to believe that these new FTC guidelines are appropriate. They seem to present a somewhat of a slippery slope. The internet and the thousands of bloggers that occupy it are functional in many ways based on the idea of allowing all or nothing. The internet should be an open venue for people to do with as they want. This is of course with some very serious exceptions. I would also point the FTC to the concept of Caveat emptor or buyer beware. Are we as consumers not capable of judging the validity of a bloggers' reviews for ourselves without FTC intervention? This is certainly an interesting new internet policy which is deserving of careful consideration.