Abusive power of bloggers

Abusive power of bloggers
Portal sites must ban untaxed blog advertising

The role of bloggers has come under public scrutiny. The tax office has traced about 1,300 untaxed commercial bloggers. They promote products and companies while receiving kickbacks. In return for not criticizing products and companies, they purportedly get paid.
It is nothing new for bloggers to earn money by writing sponsored consumer experiences and sell products on their blogs.
They trick casual readers into believing sponsored articles are consumer experiences.
In this era of social networking, many companies are unable to ignore their influence. Bloggers work as paid marketing officers. They sometimes use their blogs as a place for group purchases. They are paid in accordance with the number of products sold.
One blogger allegedly received $200,000 for selling $1 million worth of defective ozone-sterilizing washers through his blog.
Consumers demanded a refund following a revelation that the products may cause cancer. The blogger acting as a broker did not deal with the problem.
Many restaurant owners complain of the high-handed actions of the gadfly bloggers. They are approached and asked for money for having their establishments named as the best on the Internet. The owners have no choice but to compromise out of fear for retaliation.
Sometimes a blogger specializing in fashion rates restaurants for money. They multiply their power by tweeting their comments. These bloggers use five key attributes for effective blogging ??? timely, different, passionate, interactive and inspiring reviews.
These bloggers are cancerous to online commerce. They blemish the other honest bloggers who want to share their experiences with consumers. Bloggers have been helpful in providing information on products as early adopters. This information enables consumers to make an appropriate choice before buying them.
Consumer-generated advertising and sponsored posts is a new but controversial form of advertising communication which links businesses with consumers. In Korea, this is done clandestinely without taxation.
The time has come for regulators to establish rules to protect consumers from those living on sponsored posts. It is logical for bloggers to establish registered advertising companies, and pay adequate tax on their cyber income. Bloggers have the obligation to inform consumers whether their information is sponsored or not.
Internet portal companies should only accept registered blog advertisers. Portal sites should stop giving awards to popular bloggers who have many subscribers, visitors and comments. The winners abuse their popularity by earning money through backdoor deals with advertisers.
Commercial bloggers should reflect on their lucrative but illegal and unethical behavior. They abuse cyberspace where there is no discrimination against age, gender and race for speaking out.
They should not ride on their popularity to trick innocent consumers. Visitors should keep an eye out to distinguish what are real consumer experiences or sponsored articles.
Any form of untaxed commercial activity will destroy the blogosphere???s credibility. The time has come to regulate commercial bloggers to protect consumers.
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