Regulating bloggers: free speech on the Web.

• Author: Sanchez, Julian
• Position: Brief article

THE LIBERAL blog Daily Kos and its conservative counterpart RedState don't agree on much, but last March they joined virtual hands to protect the Internet from the Federal Election Commission (FEC).

The agency had originally concluded that the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act's rules pertaining to "public communications" had been intended to apply to media such as television, where the volume of your voice is closely linked to the size of your wallet, and not to the Internet. But a 2004 district court ruling required the agency to develop specific rules for the Net, raising the possibility that bloggers could be subject to onerous spending restrictions, disclosure requirements, and FEC investigations. Liberal, conservative, and libertarian bloggers joined in protest.

Most of the protesters seemed satisfied at the end of March, when the FEe unanimously approved new rules...