Thu 8 Oct 2009
FTC Releases New Guidelines for Social Media
Posted by Megan Dorn under Technology, Business and Politics
For the first time ever, the Federal Trade Commission will attempt to regulate the social media industry, blogging in particular.
On Monday the FTC released updates to its guidelines for acceptable use of endorsements in ads. Like mainstream media outlets, bloggers (and Twitterers, Facebookers, etc.) will now be required to disclose any “material connections” to a brand or product they write about. To put it plainly, if anyone gives you any money or freebies to endorse or review their products or services, you MUST disclose that to your readers.
Violating these new rules, which will take effect Dec. 1, could cost up to $11,000 in fines per violation. Bloggers and advertisers could also face injunctions and be ordered to reimburse consumers for financial losses that may have stemmed from misguiding reviews.
Because of these new guidelines, many social media writers are nervous about posting even the most harmless of comments. To soothe this anxiety, the FTC states that most often (violations will be dealt with on a case-by-case basis) it will pursue the advertiser regarding the violation rather than the blogger.
While I will of course plead the fifth on giving my opinion regarding regulation of the industry, I do believe that the more transparent a company, blogger, or anyone for that matter is about the work they do, the more likely they’ll be to gain the trust of consumers.
