Pay-&-tell for political web ads

ONLINE POLITICAL ads in New York elections will have to disclose who’s paying for them under legislation signed by Gov. Cuomo on Wednesday.

Cuomo cast the new law as a response to Russian meddling in the 2016 election, and a way to update old election laws for the digital age.

Now, ads for local and state elections placed on platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Google will have to include a line saying who paid the bill, the same way TV and radio ads have long been required to.

Websites will be barred from selling political ads to foreign entities.

“The law has not kept up with technology,” Cuomo said before signing the bill at Cardozo Law School in Greenwich Village.

“What possible logic would say not on TV, not on radio, not in the newspaper, not on a piece of mail, but when it comes to Facebook then you can say whatever you want, anyone can pay for it and there’s no disclosure whatsoever? There is no rationale.”

The legislation mirrors a federal proposal known as the Honest Ads Act, which has not passed Congress.