If you run a political site — such as a PAC or a campaign for a person or issue — then you should not be able to hide who you are in the WhoIs database.
In other words, any political action site — a PAC or a site advocating for or against a person or an issue — should contain information about the organization or person who is running the website in a Whois lookup. [To clarify, I’m not talking about opinion sites but sites that are driving campaigns.]
If you agree with me, please sign this petition. And share it!
A “private domain registration” that shows only the domain registrar, such as GoDaddy, is insufficient for political action transparency. Knowing the provenance of a website is essential information for determining a site’s credibility and veracity. This transparency is essential in an ever-crowded digital space, where setting up an online storefront can be done in five minutes.
The impetus for my soapbox Tweet and Google+ post was this site/comment. A commenter at Google+ suggested the WhiteHouse petition.
What say you? Vote for transparency by signing the petition and sharing it (or this post)! TIA!
3 replies on “A Call For Political Transparency”
Hey, Joey – if you’re a (c)3 or (c)4 you should not be hiding who you are. The reason I ranted was because I encountered a site that had no “about” info but that was presenting itself as a site supporting a candidate. My guess was that the site owner actually opposed the candidate.
What about (c)(3)s, or politically-oriented (c)(4)s?
If you have a better idea for helping this idea get legs, please just Do It!
Also at TMV and NewsVine.