The reality is about a year or so ago the FTC changed the rules that radically altered what you can and cannot do on a commercial website. In a nutshell you’re no longer allowed to shape opinion in a way that isn’t transparent. For example
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The revised Guides also add new examples to illustrate the long standing principle that “material connections” (sometimes payments or free products) between advertisers and endorsers – connections that consumers would not expect – must be disclosed.
If it is correct that Ken is being compensated in some way here all of his posts need to contain the disclaimer the FTC requires so the consumer can understand the bias in his posts.
You can also no longer farm opinion by creating fake profiles to pose as ordinary people and then pose questions designed in a way to benefit you commercial interests. Using your Face Book page as an example you would have to disclose an employee that post comments there as an employee. They couldn’t be presented as disinterested individuals with no dog in the hunt.
So while I agree with you to a certain extent the owners of the site still have to follow the rules as they are set by the FTC.
The revised Guides also add new examples to illustrate the long standing principle that “material connections” (sometimes payments or free products) between advertisers and endorsers – connections that consumers would not expect – must be disclosed.
If it is correct that Ken is being compensated in some way here all of his posts need to contain the disclaimer the FTC requires so the consumer can understand the bias in his posts.
You can also no longer farm opinion by creating fake profiles to pose as ordinary people and then pose questions designed in a way to benefit you commercial interests. Using your Face Book page as an example you would have to disclose an employee that post comments there as an employee. They couldn’t be presented as disinterested individuals with no dog in the hunt.
So while I agree with you to a certain extent the owners of the site still have to follow the rules as they are set by the FTC.
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Originally posted by: franksynopsis
The First Amendment is my personal favorite, but while performing the ignoble task of moderating a commercial Facebook page, I must occasionally remind participants that the forum is not a democracy, nor does it claim to be.
The moderators of this particular forum have explained that the issue is not political content ... the issue is the inability of human adults to conduct themselves with any degree of civility when reacting to political content. If we could play well with others, we could probably discuss anything on these pages. But we can't. For some reason, this point remains elusive.
Non-participation is a another tenet of freedom.
