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TechnographTechnology: The McCain-Feingold threat
By Kiyoshi Martinez
Posted: 4/18/05 Section: Features
Senators John McCain, R-Ariz., and Russ Feingold, D-Wisc., introduced the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act in 2002, attempting to clean-up "soft money," get rid of phony issue advertisements from corporations and unions and improve disclosure of independent expenditures and campaign contributions. While the intentions appeared good, the act, better known as McCain-Feingold, has now emerged as a threat to the Internet, bloggers, e-mail and free speech.
Republican commissioner on the Federal Elections Commission, Bradley Smith, talked with CNET news in March about the possible implications that McCain-Feingold could have on the Internet. His words were alarming when he mentioned that the FEC would be extending McCain-Feingold reforms to the Internet.
Smith explained that the six-member commission at the FEC had voted to grant the Internet an exemption from the new campaign finance reforms in 2002. But last September, U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly overturned their exemption after Representatives Christopher Shays, R-Conn., and Martin Meehan, D-Mass., sued the FEC.
Because McCain-Feingold regulates contributions to political candidates, the act forces the FEC to determine what is and isn't a contribution on the Internet. The definition is unclear and could even be as broad as creating a hyperlink to a politician's Web site, which could bring bloggers under the microscope and subject them to campaign finance law.
But can you really put a value on a hyperlink?
The pro-Internet regulation argument says you can. If a blogger who has a large amount of hits to his or her Web site links to a politician who then receives a boost in donations, that hyperlink could be worth thousands, if not millions.
While there is some understanding that Internet based advertising would be subject to regulation, the scope of the Judge Kollar-Kotelly's ruling extends to coordinated organizations on the Internet too. Simply having an e-mail list where a citizen not involved directly with a campaign sends out a message in an attempt to start a grassroots movement could be subject to McCain-Feingold.
Republican commissioner on the Federal Elections Commission, Bradley Smith, talked with CNET news in March about the possible implications that McCain-Feingold could have on the Internet. His words were alarming when he mentioned that the FEC would be extending McCain-Feingold reforms to the Internet.
Smith explained that the six-member commission at the FEC had voted to grant the Internet an exemption from the new campaign finance reforms in 2002. But last September, U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly overturned their exemption after Representatives Christopher Shays, R-Conn., and Martin Meehan, D-Mass., sued the FEC.
Because McCain-Feingold regulates contributions to political candidates, the act forces the FEC to determine what is and isn't a contribution on the Internet. The definition is unclear and could even be as broad as creating a hyperlink to a politician's Web site, which could bring bloggers under the microscope and subject them to campaign finance law.
But can you really put a value on a hyperlink?
The pro-Internet regulation argument says you can. If a blogger who has a large amount of hits to his or her Web site links to a politician who then receives a boost in donations, that hyperlink could be worth thousands, if not millions.
While there is some understanding that Internet based advertising would be subject to regulation, the scope of the Judge Kollar-Kotelly's ruling extends to coordinated organizations on the Internet too. Simply having an e-mail list where a citizen not involved directly with a campaign sends out a message in an attempt to start a grassroots movement could be subject to McCain-Feingold.
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