There are three rules that everyone seems to agree about regarding blogs: One, anything on a blog is fair game for responses from everyone else who sees it. Two, a blogger who wants to blog about his or her employer does so at risk of his or her job. And three, there are no other rules.

But the Federal Trade Commission is considering some new ones for those who endorse products and services in their blogs.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is one of the many government agencies in the United States that protect the public from harmful business practices such as false and deceptive advertising. Among its requirements is one that all publishers of articles and testimonials must disclose any connections that they or their writers have to the manufacturers and marketers of goods and services they discuss. The rule currently applies to newspapers, magazines, and other mainstream media.

If the FTC implements a controversial proposal it is currently considering, bloggers would also be required to disclose such connections. Anyone who chooses to write casually, “I like iPhones and think everyone should get one” in his or her own blog would have to mention any shares of stock they own in Apple, any special discount or rebate they received from Apple to buy an iPhone, or any relationship they have to Steve Jobs.

The FTC would take this a step further and require of bloggers that they disclose any free review copies they have received. This is a requirement that newspapers, magazines, and other media are not subject to. So if Apple gave a blogger a free iPhone, that blogger would have to disclose that information, whereas The New York Times and Wired magazine would not.

Now the case could be made that bloggers don’t count as journalists-they’re writing for fun, they don’t get paid, they aren’t working for media outlets, their posts are usually seen by only a small number of people at most. But given that as of August, 2008, blogs received more than 77 million unique visitors in the United States according to Technorati, the blog-tracking website, it’s clear that blogging has serious potential to really spread the word about a product or service and make or break reputations. So the FTC has a point about wanting to keep the blogosphere neutral, or at least frank, about products and services discussed within its purview by way of protecting consumers.

In conclusion, when you buy your next Mac, if you choose to blog about it, you need to protect yourself by mentioning any connection you have to its manufacturer or marketers. Otherwise, one bad Apple could damage the whole barrel of blogs.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 29th, 2009 at 10:24 am and is filed under Editing Blogs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.