Friday, March 04, 2005

I think this issue might be overblown. There are indications the FEC has tried this before and it can't really regulate blogs. There are questions whether blogs are periodicals, and such. Rebecca Fairley Raney writes
"A couple of stories, notably about the Bush campaign trying to shut down a Web critic under FEC rules, are linked under "Breaking news," and the day-to-day coverage is linked near the bottom of the page, under "Regulating political expression." The FEC has established fairly strong precedents to protect political speech on the Internet. Looking ahead, it appears that the biggest threats to speech could come not from the FEC, but from the political campaigns that want to hustle FEC rules to shut down critics."
Blogs could be muzzled if they address political issues. I haven't had time to check the FEC's own site about this, but it is alarming enough to take some time to read and think about what this kind of FCC regulation would mean to our basic freedom of speech. More later on this topic. Tapscott's Copy Desk: FEC Commissioner Says Court Decision Means Uncle Sam May Have to Regulate Political Speech on the Internet's Blogs

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