FTC eyes mobile, social media with latest online ad rules
Advertisers should think twice about placing promotional messages on mobile and social media platforms like Twitter if those ads require disclosures or disclaimers to avoid being deceptive or unfair, the US Federal Trade Commission said on Tuesday.
The updated guidelines for online advertising represent the commission's attempt to catch up to more than a decade of fast-evolving new technology, from the advent of the mobile revolution to an explosion in social media like Facebook and Twitter.
This year, as in the last report issued in 2000, the FTC holds online advertisers to the same standards of honesty and full disclosure as newspapers and television.
But the limited space available on mobile platforms maintained by Twitter, Facebook and others means that it is difficult to place appropriate disclosures close enough to the ad, or prominently enough, to ensure users see it.
"Advertisers should make sure their disclosures are clear and conspicuous on all devices and platforms that consumers may use to view their ads," the FTC's Lesley Fair said in a blog post accompanying the 53-page report.
"That means that if an ad would be deceptive or unfair (or would otherwise violate an FTC rule) without a disclosure - but the disclosure can't be made clearly and conspicuously on a particular device or platform - then that ad shouldn't run on that device or platform," Fair wrote.
And the FTC discouraged the use of pop-ups for disclosures since they are so often blocked.
"Most webpages viewable on desktop devices may also be viewable on smartphones," the FTC
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