Comments on: Astroturfing & Disclosure: Where Do You Draw the Line? http://www.thatcanadiangirl.co.uk/blog/2009/03/05/astroturfing-disclosure-where-do-you-draw-the-line/ Tech, community & life Sun, 08 Jan 2012 22:02:49 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: John Eckman http://www.thatcanadiangirl.co.uk/blog/2009/03/05/astroturfing-disclosure-where-do-you-draw-the-line/#comment-23945 John Eckman Tue, 14 Apr 2009 13:05:42 +0000 http://www.thatcanadiangirl.co.uk/?p=1527#comment-23945 I wonder if they would consider Ghost Tweeting illegal and/or unethical as well? See <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/27/technology/internet/27twitter.html?em" rel="nofollow">this NY Times article</a> for more on Ghost Twitterers I wonder if they would consider Ghost Tweeting illegal and/or unethical as well?

See this NY Times article for more on Ghost Twitterers

]]> By: Kerry Gaffney http://www.thatcanadiangirl.co.uk/blog/2009/03/05/astroturfing-disclosure-where-do-you-draw-the-line/#comment-22101 Kerry Gaffney Fri, 06 Mar 2009 12:04:06 +0000 http://www.thatcanadiangirl.co.uk/?p=1527#comment-22101 I think the reason that the CIPR believes ghost writing a blog would be a crimnal act is down to the EU Directive of Unfair Commerical practices (http://www.berr.gov.uk/whatwedo/consumers/buying-selling/ucp/). Its fine if its clear that the post doesn't purport to be from a named individual, but a bit dodgy it does claim to be writte by Mr Big Cheese and it isn't. I think that the law is still pretty unclear on this area and that it's intent was to prevent dodgy hotel managers from writing dubious reviews on places like tripadvisor, not to stop blog posts being ghost written. That said, do you approve of corporate bloggers outsourcing their writing to the marketing team? You've pointed out that press releases tend to get written by committee, which is true but they are meant to be factual and not express an opinion, blog posts aren't. I think the reason that the CIPR believes ghost writing a blog would be a crimnal act is down to the EU Directive of Unfair Commerical practices (http://www.berr.gov.uk/whatwedo/consumers/buying-selling/ucp/). Its fine if its clear that the post doesn’t purport to be from a named individual, but a bit dodgy it does claim to be writte by Mr Big Cheese and it isn’t.

I think that the law is still pretty unclear on this area and that it’s intent was to prevent dodgy hotel managers from writing dubious reviews on places like tripadvisor, not to stop blog posts being ghost written. That said, do you approve of corporate bloggers outsourcing their writing to the marketing team? You’ve pointed out that press releases tend to get written by committee, which is true but they are meant to be factual and not express an opinion, blog posts aren’t.

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