About the Author

Richard Cochrane is trained in chemistry and metallurgy but is far more interested and practiced as a political and fund raising consultant, writer and amateur historian. He grew up in a Navy family and with his two younger brothers carried on its 500+ year tradition of naval service to Great Britain and the USA then enjoyed a career with one of the largest advertising and public relations agencies working with numerous Fortune 500 companies and many of America's premier educational institutions. He maintains friendships and acquaintanceships around the world. He lives in Santa Barbara, California.

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FPPC to regulate YouTube, Facebook and Twitter?

October 27th, 2009 • Richard Cochrane
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fppcregulationsThe internet is becoming an unique and inexpensive tool for candidates, political parties and issue committees to send out messages through YouTube, Facebook and Twitter.

Now, The California FPPC (Fair Political Practices Commission) wants to regulate these internet based medium and will solict input to “further define agency’s role and possible regulation. Free political speech has been a hallmark of America.

Critics of the idea to regulate the internet including things like: YouTube, Facebook and Twitter are sounding the alarm klaxons raising question including:

·         When Twitter recommends a user follow another user who happens to be a candidate, does that constitute an in-kind contribution? Should Twitter force all of its customers to identify whether they are a candidate, or potentially a candidate?

·         When Facebook notes that some of a user’s friends have become fans of a candidate, and Facebook suggests that person be followed, is that also an in-kind corporate contribution to the candidate? That would be an illegal corporate contribution to any federal candidate. Does this mean Facebook needs to ask everyone if they are a candidate for federal office? What if the service is hosted on servers in a foreign country?

·         When candidates post online ads but are only charged once someone clicks on the ad, should the candidate still be required to post a ‘Paid for by’ disclaimer on the ad itself, or just on the page the ad links to?

·         Should individual messages on Twitter, which can only be 140 characters long, be required to include a ‘Paid for by’ message that may take up the entire message?

This promises to be a robust debate that could have national importance.  Regulation of the internet once begun will be almost impossible to reverse or control.

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