Over dinner with some friends a couple of nights ago, we had a short debate about what disclosures should be made by the author of a blog post. Anonymous blogging and the attendant comments have interesting ethical considerations.
It is possible to blog anonymously however if you become good at it, you will eventually be found out. Fake Steve was probably one of the funniest anonymous bloggers but he was finally outed by the New York Times in 2007. It is easier to comment anonymously. I do believe that if you have the strength of your convictions anonymity is not the way to go. I am of the school of taking responsibility for views expressed openly. If you are not prepared to stand behind your views, you should simply keep them to yourself.
I have come across a number of guidelines as to what constitutes ethical blogging. <Note to self: in a future post publish links to these guidelines> Some people are surprised that there is an unspoken code of conduct amongst serious bloggers. Some of this code is becoming institutionalized.
In the United States, the FTC recently published a guide regarding the endorsement of products in new media (aka blogs). It’s worth a read but if you want the Cliffs notes version, read the NYT article. In Singapore the Media Development Authority of Singapore is considering something similar.
With that in mind, I recently came across this apology by Michael Arrington of TechCrunch where it was revealed one the interns for TechCrunch has asked for and had received a Macbook Air in exchange for a post. The intern’s remorseful mea culpa is here.
That got me thinking as to why there are people who don’t seem to get that there are certain bright lines you do not cross. As I blog, I am always thinking about whether anything I write can be interpreted wrongly. Lawyers in particular run a higher risk of running afoul of issues pertaining not only to ethical issues but also considerations such as malpractice, advertising and disclosure of client sensitive information.
I do worry about everything I write publicly. This is harder than writing to a client since that communication is protected by attorney-client privilege. Once you say or do something stupid on the Internet, the genie is out of the bottle.
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