The Interactive Advertising Bureau is calling on the Federal Trade Commission to withdraw its recently revised guidelines governing dealings between bloggers and marketers. The ad trade group says the rules “unfairly and unconstitutionally” impose penalties on online media for practices, while exempting traditional media. Furthermore, in an open letter to FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz, Randall Rothenberg, the IAB’s president and CEO, says the FTC’s distinction between offline media and online media, “constitutionally dubious” by invoking the First Amendment right to free speech. Release

Apart from the separate treatment of social media and traditional news organs, the IAB’s dispute zeros in on the FTC’s warning of an $11,000 penalty against bloggers for failing to disclose free promotional products from marketers they discuss online. The FTC very quickly sought to downplay the worries about the fine, after a firestorm grew following the release of the new guidelines, which were last updated in 1980.

As our Staci D. Kramer noted (citing Fast Company’s piece) last week, Richard Cleland, assistant director, division of advertising practices at the FTC, said the “$11,000 fine is not true. Worst-case scenario, someone receives a warning, refuses to comply, followed by a serious product defect; we would institute a proceeding with a cease-and-desist order and mandate compliance with the law. ... There’s no monetary penalty, in terms of the first violation, even in the worst case.” Instead, he said the FTC’s guidelines are intended to serve as education.

But there are still some doubts out there about whether the FTC means that. The IAB wants to make sure that no fines will be handed down and therefore wants the FTC to put it in writing.

“They—and we—are not arguing that bloggers and social media be treated differently than incumbent media,” says Rothenberg’s letter. “After all, most newspapers, magazines, radio stations and television networks, in recognition that Americans are embracing new forms of social communications, have established their own blogs, boards, Facebook pages, Twitter feeds, and the like. Rather, we’re saying the new conversational media should be accorded the same rights and freedoms as other communications channels.”

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