Thursday, September 26, 2013




New California regulation on political bloggers will chill free speech

Yesterday the California Fair Political Practices Commission approved a dangerous regulation that will subject political bloggers to disclosure rules.

The regulation forces campaign committees to report on their campaign finance statements the names of people they pay to post “favorable or unfavorable” political messages about “a candidate or ballot measure” on a website, blog, social media platform, or online video. They must also report how much they paid the person and the name of the website where the content first appears.

The regulation will be a compliance and paperwork nightmare in the age of the Internet when ideas embedded in blogs, tweets, and videos are ubiquitous. The Commission will be able to pick and choose “compliance violations” to fine based on the Commission’s political leanings. Violations by friendlies will be overlooked; violations by enemies will be punished.

But most important the regulation will have a chilling effect on people who want to support causes they believe in yet they want to remain anonymous or keep their personal finances private.

Source

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

It seems the mindless left-wing dupes who run Mexifornia are hell-bent on copying N. Korea, Venezuela, or Cuba. It's obviously time to draw a new map of the US with Nevada as the new west coast.

Anonymous said...

Actually, since the "mindless left-wing dupes" are the ones most likely to be doing the "paid blogging," they will be the first to feel the wrath of any unfriendly government action.

Anonymous said...

They are always the ones made to pay first by the leftist govt. they push into power. And that is as it should be.

Anonymous said...

“If you want a picture of the (liberal) future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face—for ever.”

George Orwell, 1984

Anonymous said...

"When any government, or any church for that matter, undertakes to say to its subjects, This you may not read, this you must not see, this you are forbidden to know, the end result is tyranny and oppression no matter how holy the motives."

- Robert Heinlein

Anonymous said...

“Censorship: the reaction of the ignorant to freedom.”

Anonymous said...

Welcome to 1984. The irony is who was president than and now. Old George was prophetic.