Soup | Anthony De Rosa - IAB to FTC: Rescind Blogger Rules

IAB to FTC: Rescind Blogger Rules - MarketingVOX

I had something witty to say about this but I forgot it. Maybe we should all just start an internet meme and put buttons on every blog in the universe that says “I might get free shit sometimes. And I blog about it.” I mean, seriously. Where is the line? I got a free Droid at a party this week. I have a Tumblr. If I use the word Droid from here on out, am I endorsing? What if I only say mean shit?

And there are so many weasel words. What is a “material connection” between advertiser and blogger? What is a large following? 1,000? 10,000? Do we do it by Google rank? Noah got a free Droid phone too. Way more people read his blog than mine. Can I say good things about it without disclosing, but he can’t? That seems screwy.

But hey. Maybe I’m misinterpreting. I haven’t had time to really dig into this yet. Have you? Am I wrong in my interpretation?

The biggest issue is, they are putting rules on people who happen to use a certain platform to produce content that they’re not putting on people in other platforms, like television, movies, magazines, etc.