socialmedian: Have A Blog? Be Careful What You Say

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Have A Blog? Be Careful What You Say By miad

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Source: The Wisdom Journal

Apr 06, 2009

Summary

I recently ran across an article in the Financial Times, a London based newspaper. The article was titled Advertisers brace for online viral marketing curbs. Here’s a quote:

“Revised guidelines on endorsements and testimonials by the Federal Trade Commission, now under review and expected to be adopted, would hold companies liable for untruthful statements made by bloggers and users of social networking sites who receive samples of their products. The guidelines would also hold bloggers liable for the statements they make about products. The blogger could be sued for making false representations. “

This could have a chilling effect on everything from Twitter to StumbleUpon to any other social media. Why? Mistakenly claim that a product re-grew hair and you’re potentially liable. Mistakenly claim that a software product will help someone get control of their finances and voila, you’re now liable. “That sunscreen protected me for 12 hours!” is now off limits!

The main target of the new guidelines appears to be the widespread practice of viral mar

...Read the full article

Comments (6)

Blog Dudes,

Apr 06, 2009

Interesting story. As the article concludes, this would be hard to enforce. However, it does hark back to an earlier discussion I read in these pages regarding the practice of paying bloggers to endorse products. In those circumstances then I think there should be some control - it is effectively just another form of advertising afterall, and therefore should be regulated in the same way. But personal, 'word-of-mouth' raves or rants about particular companies or products surely are protected under freedom of speech laws . . . ? Authenticity is everything.

A business acquaintance's daughter is currently being sued by a doctor after she complained about his treatment in a blog post. He is claiming loss of business. But, if she is posting about a genuine personal experience as a warning to others, is that actionable by the doctor? I am no legal expert, and I know every case is different, but we have to draw a line somewhere, surely?

Neil Maycock,

Apr 06, 2009

I think we have to be very careful here. Marketing is marketing, sometimes it twists and turns the truth. I used to do forum posting back in the day, and yes sometimes posted lots of blogs and posts to information I had no idea was true.