FTC Imposes New Guidelines for Review-Bloggers

The Federal Trade Commission has implemented new guidelines that require full disclosure from bloggers in regard to any product they review that was received for free. These guidelines are a web 2.0 enhancement of their 30 year old rules for the use of testimonials in advertising. The guidelines address an issue some folks have with the credibility of bloggers versus news and paid content.

Any company that is doling out the free product will be responsible for directing the blogger to follow the new guidelines.

The blogging community is outraged as the new guide applies to bloggers and reviewers and not news publications and magazines. The bloggers feel as though this is just one more attack on citizen journalism.

Most affected? Probably the Mommy Blogger (by the way, have you seen our whitepaper on the Social Media Mommy?)

Want to read more? check out Joan Anderman’s article on Boston.com.