Douglas Carswell's Blog

Analogue rules in a digital age

Once again, a statutory authority looks as though they are trying to apply pre-internet thinking to the digital age.

The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) apparently wants “celebrity bloggers” to be required to tell folk if they have a commercial relationship with a company whose products they endorse on-line. 

You can understand the OFT’s thinking – the trouble is it is twenty years out of date.  The OFT want to protect the public. They take this to mean ensuring blog readers are aware when a so-called celebrity is endorsing a product as an advertisement.     

Yet we no longer live in a world in which there are only a handful of broadcasters. Thanks to the internet, we live in a society with sixty million potential broadcasters, tweeters and bloggers in the UK alone.

Is the OFT seriously saying that every citizen must declare their commercial relationship with a company before tweeting to say that they like their new car / computer game / children’s toy / pizza?   And how do you define “celebrity blogger”?   While I’m certainly no celebrity, would this site count?        

The internet – as it does with so many things – blurs boundaries and redefines.   In 1981 or 1991, it was pretty clear what constituted an advertisement. But in 2011, where does an advertisement end, and a free citizen telling the world about their great new deal, and perhaps getting a discount for doing so, start?

Pre-internet, statutory agencies could more easily claim a role protecting the public from themselves - and from sharp advertising practices. Today perhaps the most effective protection is for on-line citizens to discern for themselves when they are being made a heart-felt recommendation by their favourite soap star, and when they are being sold a pup. 

It is reputation, not regulation, that will give you on-line clout. 

When we buy a newspaper, there is no statutory agency disclaimer printed on the front cover, telling us to treat as subjective the views we might find inside.  By and large, we trust folk to work that out for themselves.  So, too, when "celebrities" recommend that we buy something.

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