South Korea to curb "pay-for-praise" bloggers

South Korea's fair trade watchdog has intervened to curb influential bloggers who get rewards from companies in return for favourable reviews of products, officials said Thursday. The Fair Trade Commission (FTC) this week amended regulations so that companies and bloggers must reveal whether payments or gifts are exchanged in return for good reviews. Otherwise, the companies and bloggers could face fines. The rules will also apply to users of Twitter and Facebook. "This measure is aimed at curbing 'power bloggers' who deceive consumers by concealing their links with companies and write favourable product reviews and organise group purchases," an FTC director, Kim Jeong-Kee, told AFP. The so-called power bloggers wield growing influence in highly wired South Korea but some promote products in return for commissions or freebies. In a case that sparked public anger this month, a renowned power-blogging housewife reportedly received $190,000 from a company in exchange for helping it sell kitchenware that carried a government standards agency warning. "Internet users feel betrayed by corrupt power bloggers who make money by colluding with businesses," a commentator in Kookmin Ilbo newspaper wrote last week. Some bloggers and advertisers, however, expressed concern that the FTC's new initiative went too far, the Korea JoongAng Daily said. "My question is, how will the FTC restrict all bloggers that are out there in cyberspace?" Kim Seon-Jin, a blogger who often reviews cosmetics products, was quoted as saying. "There are just too many for the FTC to keep track of. There are hundreds of thousands of blogs, with new ones being created every day," she said.