This entry will be a rare cross-post for me. The Federal Election Commission decided yesterday that most internet political activity will not be subject to the provisions of the ridiculous McCain-Feingold Campaign Reform Act (also known as the Incumbent Protection Act). The 2002 law severely limited the free speech of Americans in the political realm. It required that all ads or endorsement for federal campaigns be funded by regulated money. Individual “contributions” were limited to $2,000. Many people feared that these restrictions would be applied to the internet. If that had been the case, private website operators, bloggers and forum posters could have been in a tough situation if they wrote in support of a particular candidate or issue. They could have had an arbitrary value assigned to their political endorsements online and could have been restricted from writing their thoughts if they exceeded their “contribution limit.”
What the FEC said, according Chairman Michael E. Toner, is that there is now a “categorical and unqualified exemption for all individual and group political activity on the internet, except for paid advertisement.” Commission Vice Chairman Robert D. Lenhard stated, “The law was never intended to regulate private citizen communication on the internet.”
I am thrilled to hear this news. As an active blogger who is highly interested in politics, the prospect of having my personal writings and commentary regulated by the Federal Election Commission is not an attractive one. This is especially true since I am opposed to almost all campaign finance restrictions and laws in the first place. But that is a topic for another day.
Link to Official Document (.pdf)
Technorati Tags: blogging, campaign finance, fec, free speach, internet
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