Then They Came for the Bloggers…

Another death blow to free speech came on the morning of October 5th, 2009 as the Federal Trade Commission voted unanimously to enact revisions to 16 CFR Part 255.

Revisions to this 81-page FTC guideline document — innocently tagged ‘Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising’ — were aimed squarely at web bloggers. The changes define thinly sliced examples of how web endorsements can be defined and how each can stray into the territory of advertisements. It also heralds stern punishment for offenders who write product or service reviews and saddles the blog author with stiff penalties should they fail to divulge that their review is a paid or barter endorsement, or if they make any claims about a product that does not prove true. According to the document available in PDF form here: http://www.ftc.gov/os/2009/10/091005endorsementguidesfnnotice.pdf these new regulations will be enforceable starting December 1st, 2009

Sadly, this attack on free speech also endangers countless bloggers who depend on income earned by product reviews.

So what? It’s about time somebody took control and closed down these bloggers clogging up the web with their reviews and cheesy info sites full of affiliate links and questionable testimonials!”

That seems to be the mainstream response, however, those who closely follow the ongoing battle between corporate media and the independent bloggers will see more sinister intent here. Bloggers have made a huge dent in corporate media consumption and advertising revenue. In the early days of the web, corporate media satisfied itself first by stiff arming web publishers as unimportant and amateur — basically not worth following. Then as more consumers flocked to the Internet for information rather than just amusement, the mainstream press turned up the heat with an endless cycle of scare pieces about the dangers of the web and how harmful it could be to surf.

Then amazingly, once the corporate powers had positioned themselves on the web, they proceeded to (attempt to) extend their authority into the new media. Now any news outlet who wishes to survive must maintain sites with interactive Web 2 aspects and social media components. Now they seemed to suddenly embrace the web and everything about it. Every news page and program had the corporations web branding and URL. The web is ours! Bwah ha ha!

The migration of major media onto the web is now complete. Sadly they seem to have brought all their bad baggage along with them. Corporatist slant, raging hyperbola, and elitist globalism still clog their message. So nothing has changed for the better, but at least they can compete in the free market right?

Wrong. Instead of a heads up competition, mainstream media does little else but complain about bloggers and independent news outlets because they are not accountable. More learned media experts point this fact out but also acknowledge the counter point: that bloggers and independent news sources represent the very last resource for information that has not passed through a corporate filter. Professional bloggers make up the huge diversity of information and opinion we now have available to augment or challenge globalist groupthink news outlets.

So no, it is not a heads up competition. Now comes the price. Apparently, the talking heads at big news cannot convince their consumers that unregulated bloggers should be struck from the web by the mere wieght of negative spokesmanship. So the FTC has been called in to begin its little campaign of regulation. It will not escape the informed reader that the FTC is made up of 5 presidentially appointed commissioners, who come to their 7 year post directly from, (you guessed it): corporate law firms. More pointedly still, is how former FTC commissioners are reshuffled back into the corporate law miasma.

Okay so does this mean the end of free speech on the web?

No, but it is another brick in the wall.

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