FTC issued new endorsement and AI guidance last month. blog community is unclear if it applies to indie bloggers using AI assistance for drafting. i write affiliate content and want to make sure im compliant. anyone read the actual text in detail
Read it. it applies to anyone engaged in commercial endorsement, which includes affiliate bloggers. the trigger isnt ‘using AI’ though, its ‘representing AI-generated reviews/endorsements as personally tested or authored’. if you author your blog post and use AI for grammar/research, no new disclosure needed. if AI wrote the ‘this product is great’ verdict, you must disclose. its about deception.
the FTC guidance follows the same pattern as CA’s bill: deceptive use is the trigger, workflow use is fine.
Ok so my workflow (research + outline assist) is fine, but if i had AI write a recommendation directly that would need to be disclosed. clear
The FTC enforcement track record on these things suggests they’ll go after egregious cases first. dont worry too much about edge cases until precedent forms
For affiliate bloggers specifically the FTC has historically gone after egregious deception more than technical violations. as long as your recommendation is your own and your workflow is transparent youre fine. the people getting hit are the ones publishing ‘i tested this product’ pieces where the product was never touched.
The deception framing is the through-line on all the recent guidance. CA bill, FTC, EU AI Act, even YouTube’s policy. memorize it: ‘could this be mistaken for genuine human personal verdict’ = needs disclosure. everything else is workflow.