March 07, 2005
FEC Cracking Down on Blogs?
Warning: Absurd Public Policy Consideration Ahead. The Federal Election Commission is considering regulating internet activities.
Anyone who decides to "set up a blog, send out mass e-mails, any kind of activity that can be done on the Internet" could be subject to Federal Election Commission regulation, Bradley A. Smith, a Republican commissioner, said in an interview posted Thursday on the technology news site Cnet.com.
This expanded regulation could be devastating to the ability of political "netroots" activists to communicate, campaign, and - most significant - raise funds online. We're not talking about regulation of paid advertising (like BlogAds), here. A simple statement such as "Vote Bush" or a "Contribute to Dean" link could be considered to be in-kind contributions that would have a dollar value. If a blogger maxed-out his personal cash contribution to a political candidate, and then put a link to the candidate's website on his or her blog, the blogger would be "donating" beyond the legal limit.
The McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform act of 2002 excluded the internet from the list of regulated communications media. Jerome Armstrong at the partisan Dem blog MyDD explains the legal and technical reasoning behind the possible regulation. Jerome urges for a bipartisan blogosphere campaign to pressure Congress into passing legislature that specifically exempts the internet.
It is unclear at the moment how the FEC is going to act. Left-wing Daily Kos points to the Times article and asserts that FEC commissioners are lining up in partisan opposition:
The Dems -
People should not be alarmed," said Ellen L. Weintraub, a Democratic commissioner. "Given the impact of the Internet," Ms. Weintraub said, "I think we have to take a look at whether there are aspects of that that ought to be subject to the regulations. But again, I don't want this issue to get overblown. Because I really don't think, at the end of the day, this commission is going to do anything that affects what somebody sitting at home, on their home computer, does."The GOP -
In an interview, Mr. Smith said he did not believe that the judge's ruling limited the F.E.C. to regulating only paid advertising on the Internet. "In theory, there's no reason why everything that goes on a blog advocating a candidate wouldn't be an independent expenditure and subject to regulation," Mr. Smith said.
I believe Jerome is more fair, however, when he puts most of the blame squarely on his own party's commissioners: "Well then, someone in Congress needs speak out a clue to the FEC, and it's not the Republicans!" That said, if any internet exemption law is going to be passed, it's up to the GOP to get it done. Although the Republicans have used the internet (eg: Drudge) very effectively for some time, and have benifited from an ardent cadre of right-wing bloggers recently, the Democrats probably have the most to lose from internet regulation. The netroots campaign was probably the single greatest reason the Dems and their allies were able to keep up with the GOP's fundraising efforts during the 2004 cycle. Moreover, the right simply does not have anything online even approaching Moveon.org or Dailykos.com.
Posted by mfoulger at 06:22 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack