Blogging Could Become Subject to FEC Regulation
The New York Times
By Anne E. Kornblut
Anyone who decides to “set up a blog,
send out mass e-mails, any kind of activity that can be done on the
Internet” could be subject to Federal Election Commission regulation,
Bradley A. Smith, a Republican commissioner, said in an interview
posted Thursday on the technology news site Cnet.com.
After
the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law was passed in March 2002, the
F.E.C., which is in charge of its enforcement, issued extensive rules
to accommodate the law's provisions, including a blanket exemption for
all Internet activity. But a federal judge ruled last year that many of
the F.E.C. rules were too lax and specifically asked it to address the
question of Internet activity.
Commissioners
said they could consider several questions, including whether political
Web sites are technically coordinating with official campaigns by
posting links to a candidate's Web site, and whether partisan bloggers
are making in-kind contributions by donating their expertise and
computer equipment to a campaign.
(click here to read the entire story)
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