Bloggers: legit and regulation-free, for now

San Francisco backs off from proposed legislation that would regulate the activity of political bloggers.

Page Rockwell

Apr 8, 2005 | Denizens of the blogosphere can breathe a sigh of relief for the moment regarding tighter regulation: San Francisco's governing Board of Supervisors has backed off proposed legislation that would require political bloggers with high traffic to pay fees and register with the city's Ethics Commission. After receiving what was apparently a barrage of angry emails, the supes opted to modify the campaign finance-reform ordinance in question to exempt almost all Internet activities from regulation. (Paid online advertisements would still require accompanying disclosure messages.)

Though there's certainly no shortage of partisan hacks out there, San Francisco supervisor Sophie Maxwell, who sponsored the ordinance, even went so far as to fully legitimize the pajama-clad army. Noting that traditional news outlets, unless owned or controlled by a political party, are exempt from campaign finance regulations, Maxwell said, "The intent of the legislation is to cover blogs as a recognized news entity."

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