MEP says bloggers 'considerably pollute cyberspace'

THE whole process of the way this story has been placed in front of a number of people in around an hour or so should be considered by a group of MEPs who have their eyes on regulating bloggers.

Thanks to a message on Twitter from Mark Comerford about an EU report titled DRAFT REPORT on concentration and pluralism in the media in the European Union (.pdf) I've been able to read that MEPs are keen to promote 'voluntary labelling' for blogs.

And thanks to Mark highlighting a link to an accompanying article on the European Parliament news service I've been able to read how aware of the range of blogs the report's author is.

Estonian Socialist MEP Marianne Mikko is quoted as saying she doesn't see bloggers as a threat but that they are:

...in position, however, to considerably pollute cyberspace. We already have too much spam, misinformation and malicious intent in cyberspace". She added, "I think the public is still very trusting towards blogs, it is still seen as sincere. And it should remain sincere. For that we need a quality mark, a disclosure of who is really writing and why."

If there is one thing that has come out of the explosion of online publishing it is that the best sites are those whose authors put their names to them, such transparency is what makes them stand out from media practices of the past.

Marianne Mikko should take a little time to look around some of the most popular blogs on the internet to see how people are willing to leave comments for others because they trust the authors and fellow commentators.

Yes there are splogs and other spammy websites but they rarely make the front page of search results, and are definitely not passed between friends on Facebook or tweeted about on Twitter.

And if Marianne Mikko wants to see some fine examples of where people have made available information to others in an open and transparent manner drop in on some case studies of Creative Commons projects.

The report also highlights the steps the European Parliament might take to ensure media choice is strong, but I'll let Andy Dickinson cover that one.

Comments

[Julia]

Thanks a lot for this, Craig - that's a very poignant and sincere response. Just makes you wonder once again how well politicians actually know what they talk about.

A quote:

"She added, "I think the public is still very trusting towards blogs, it is still seen as sincere."

In my experience, every third, if not second, person I've spoken to - not just in England, but also in Russia, the U.S., and other countries - has no idea what a blog is. That includes not just individuals, but also businesses (and I work in SEO and SEM). Same applies to people's plans to start a blog. From where has Ms Mikko got the idea of people trusting blogs, if people don't even know the word?

I can agree about "polluting cyberspace". (It looks like political vocabulary is getting "greener", and that's somewhat alarming). But "polluting cyberspace" is akin to political demagogy, and I guess nobody is planning to regulate the latter. And as you rightly point out, splogs and worthless sites just don't get into the first pages of SERPs, they're not linked to (except between spammers themselves), they're just there gathering cyberspace dust - like the speeches of the 19th c. politicians in the libraries.

Julia

[Craig McGinty]

Hi Julia, I must agree that most people wouldn't know if they were on a blog or not, to many readers a website is a website.

And if they build up a trust with the site by regularly reading the articles, following links and maybe joining in with the comments, that's much more valuable than an EU 'badge'.

All the best, Craig