EU to ban 'sockpuppets'

Sockpuppets are marketing blogs made to look like regular people’s blogs (or pages or profiles) – they’re basically stealth ads. The EU is not only wise to them but planning to ban them (I guess if they’re on servers based in Europe), reports Play.tm, a London-based videogame news site. The law goes into effect at the end of this year. “Those transgressing the new directives will be named and shamed by Trading Standards or taken to court; the law also covers people with a vested interest reviewing their own products on sites such as Amazon.