Fake Blogging to be Criminalized in UK?
Interesting tweet I picked up this morning from SEO Chicks
“Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008” This interesting law comes in to force on May 28th 2008 and within the UK stands to criminalise some regrettably common practices
It seems that fake blogs (”flogs”), like those from Sony and Walmart, will become not just black hat in the UK, but illegal!
This seems like a victory for the UK consumer, if of course it really does work out that way (how many times have we seen promising legal moves turn out to have no teeth?).
The law outlaws activities that include:
“Falsely claiming or creating the impression that the trader is not acting for purposes relating to his trade, business, craft or profession, or falsely representing oneself as a consumer.”
Just to recap, Walmart faked a blog about a family RV tour, as Jack at the Guardian describes
The blog, launched Sept. 27, was profiled in this week’s issue of BusinessWeek, which exposed the site as a promotional tactic engineered by Working Families for Wal-Mart (WFWM), an organization launched by Wal-Mart’s public relations firm Edelman. WFWM paid for the RV and all travel expenses, rerouted the trip’s original plan, and plastered a logo on the RV’s side. Although the blog featured a link to WFWM, it did not identify the organization as a paid sponsor.
Advertising Age fills us in on the fake Sony blog
a blog titled alliwantforxmasisapsp.com (which has apparently been taken down by Sony) that featured two guys trying to spread the word about convincing family members to get one of them a PSP for Christmas.Except the whole thing wasn’t really a blog — a fact revealed by cyber sleuths who looked up the domain’s registration Sony’s fake PSP blog effort appears to have backfired on the marketer — and provided an important lesson for other marketers and their ad agencies.
Sony’s fake PSP blog effort appears to have backfired on the marketer — and provided an important lesson for other marketers and their ad agencies. file. It was all just an advertising ploy. Once this news broke, it only took a matter of hours for the word to spread and the rapid fire comments and responses began.
So “astroturf” blogs, fake reviews and probably paid reviews might well fall under this law.
Let’s hope it does come into being, and spreads to the rest of those countries who care about the intertubes!
Posted on April 09th, 2008 by Chris Garrett in Marketing
From what I remember this issue has been rumbling around for quite some time. Hadn’t heard of any progress on it for quite some time.
sounds like censorship to me… i dunno, i think the people to lose out are bloggers. once peple start to tell you what you can and can’t write… i don’t agree with flogs or splogs..but i think consumers can tell them apart pretty easily…
we lose
that’s my verdict.
Nice idea, I remember reading that alliwantforchristmasisapsp one, and it was hilariously funny and one of the most catastrophic marketing blunders in history.
But what’s an “astroturf” blog?!?
It sounds as if they are trying to outlaw fiction. There are many examples of tv shows and writing that try to convince you they are real……”War Of The Worlds” ring a bell? My blog?
Wow. This is a terrible idea. a) These things aren’t exactly a danger to anyone. b) The market seems to be doing a pretty good job of taking care of this as both companies cited had suffered bad PR from their misadventures.
Ming is right. This is totally censorship. I can’t wait to see the unintended consequences of this law of it passes.
I don’t understand why we need new laws to fix something that isn’t broken. Maybe we need a law to stop those scammers from sending me notices that I have won gazillions in some fake lottery or an unknown benefactor in Nigeria wants to get me some money…..but only if I send them a couple thousand to cover their costs. I’m sure the masses need protection from them.
People can figure this stuff out….if it is a bogus blog eventually it will die. I say no censoring to “protect” me, I can’t figure it out myself.
I tend to agree with all what seems to be the common opinion that, whether intentionally or not, this law will likely only result in censorship. If I write a fictional blog for the purposes of a business (not a flog or splog, but rather a blog written from the perspective of, say, a company mascot), would that be affected by this law?
I think the market it doing a pretty good job of calling out and “ruining” astroturf blogs as it is. We don’t need legislation in this regard. The concept behind it—a sort of “truth in advertising” thing—is a good one, but it seems to have too much potential to result in censorship of legitimate blogs.
@Rhys - check out this link to learn more about astroturfing:
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Astroturf
Where do we draw the line with advertising? Isn’t all advertising about trying to make us feel good somehow, so we can buy the wonderful product that promises this illustrious goodie? Isn’t it all basically a trumped up lie?
In the US there is a big movement afoot called “Greenwashing,” usually the big multinationals participate in, the party line going something like this,”oh, look at the enviromentally friendly way we get our oil…isn’t it nice?” And then happy people flood the commercial. Where are the happy caribou? I betcha they’re not happy.
This is an interesting question, and I can see arguments for both sides of the issue.
It will be interesting to see what happens.
Just how would they enforce this law is what really gets me thinking. Jurisdiction and practical enforcement issues are going to be raised again.
And of course, this will not grow to create public censorship of the Internet. No sirrah.