Blogs = Political Advertising?
And now, for something completely different: political lunacy from BC (British Columbia! It appears that Elections BC has decided that blogs are advertising:
“Under the Election Act, it will fall within the definition of election advertising, and we would ask them to register,” says Jennifer Miller of Elections B.C.
Wow. Looks like election authorities haven’t learned anything from the last time we went down this road.
I’d be kinda curious to see what Elections Canada’s opinion on the matter is. From the sounds of things, they’re going to have an opportunity to weigh in on the matter pretty quick anyways…
Ashley made an interesting point in conversation: what effect, if any, does this have on me? I’m a Canadian citizen, but I’m living in the US. I was last living in BC, which is where I was registered for the last election. However, the server hosting my blog is located in Ontario. So, who has jurisdiction over my ability to discuss politics during an election? Is it: a) Elections BC? b) Elections Ontario? c) Elections Canada? d) The FCC? e) All of the above? f) None of the above?
Yet more proof that governments are speeding towards irrelevance when it comes to regulation of information. Either they are unable to create legislation fast enough, or the legislation they create is a complete waste of time and doomed to failure.
Although they have difficulty fitting new technology into their legislative framework I still believe it is a good thing for governments to do so. The purpose of the election laws in question are to ensure that wealthy people, corporations, and interest groups do not wield undue influence during elections. It may be that some silliness results but this is preferable to having the authorities throw up their hands and give up in the face of a changing world.
As blogs and blogging constitute one of the most purely democratic mechanisms in support of political discourse — both during and between elections — it would seem purely idiotic to mandate control over them.
Sure, they might be ripe for manipulation (a la Marc Canter and pay-to-blog efforts in the commercial realm), but stateside private sector campaign finance is worse: it’s generally closed, subversive and hardly as transparent as laws mandate it ought to be.
Let’s hope that blogs are generally able to stay out of regulatory harm’s way.