Left In Lowell

Via Blue Mass Group, Adam at dKos informs us about the FEC’s new decision not to over-regulate politics on the internet (interesting that I now find out about major dKos posts through BMG):

Today, the Federal Election Commission voted unanimously to approve its final regulations regarding political activity on the Internet. As you know, we had dreaded these regulations for a year and did everything we could to influence or stop them altogether - submitting our own comments to the FEC and encouraging you to do the same (and you did, in the thousands), testifying before the FEC and Congress, and pressuring Capitol Hill to pass legislation protecting the medium.

Congress punted, but something remarkable happened — though it’s not something which ought to be remarkable: the Federal Election Commission reviewed all the comments, asked pointed questions during two days of hearings, deliberated for months . . . and ended up with the only logical conclusion that the facts, technology and law could warrant …

Adam tells us that we denizens of the internet will receive the same protections as other media outlets. The only thing to be regulated is paid advertisements. Which we have said all along is fine with us and only fair.

It seems like a small victory, but vibrant internet community journalism and activism cannot thrive without those protections.

You can read the full text of the FEC ruling here [PDF].