Lawmakers tap Facebook on taxpayers’ tab
WASHINGTON – As Congress is primed to hear from Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg this week, an examination of Capitol Hill use of the social network found that some members rely on private data to target advertising to their constituents.
And taxpayers pick up the bill. What congressional offices do is different from the Cambridge Analytica scandal that led to Zuckerberg being summoned to Capitol Hill. Cambridge is believed to have taken personal data from as many as 87 million users. Congressional offices that run Facebook ads do not get to see the names of the people they target.
Zuckerberg reiterated his regret Monday over the social network’s lapses of data privacy and security. He is to testify before Congress on Tuesday and Wednesday.
“We didn’t take a broad enough view of our responsibility, and that was a big mistake. It was my mistake, and I’m sorry. I started Facebook, I run it, and I’m responsible for what happens here,” Zuckerberg said in remarks prepared before he was to speak to the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
Last year, House members paid at least $340,000 from their official budgets directly to Facebook for advertising, according to disclosure reports that are filed quarterly.
The total was probably even higher. Private vendors that tout expertise in
“It was my mistake, and I’m sorry. I started Facebook, I run it, and I’m responsible for what happens here.”
Mark Zuckerberg Facebook CEO
advertising on Facebook and other platforms were paid several hundred thousand dollars by House offices last year, the disclosures show. Some congressional aides paid for ads with personal credit cards, so those expenditures showed up as reimbursements to staff, further obscuring how much was for Facebook vs. another outlet.
Offices that use Facebook not only get to direct the ads to their districts — a requirement under House rules — but they also can target specific groups of constituents, such as veterans or those over 55 years old.
The content of taxpayer-financed ads must be approved by the bipartisan House Franking Commission, the group that regulates official mass mailings that members of Congress can send to constituents. All “official” social media accounts face restrictions, including a ban on petitions, advertising or endorsing a product or service, and grass-roots lobbying. House offices cannot target members of only one party or try to raise money.
In some cases, online ad restrictions are tougher than those on mailings. An online ad cannot feature a lawmaker’s picture, for example.
Only a handful of topics are allowed to be covered in online ads placed with taxpayer funding, such as seeking candidates for possible nomination to military academies, inviting the public to a town hall meeting or reminding people their representatives can help with Medicare, Social Security, immigration or other federal programs.
One of the approved categories — telling the public “how to subscribe to the member’s e-communications program” — allows public dollars to go for ads encouraging the public to “like” a lawmaker’s official Facebook page.
Leaders of each party have annual contests in which lawmakers compete to see who can get the biggest increase in online followers to Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram.
“The point of the competition is to strengthen communications with constituents because that is where they are getting information,” said Mariel Saez, a spokeswoman for House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer of Maryland, who runs the Democrats’ annual challenge.
Getting constituents to “like” a member’s page is important because once they do, posts to the page may appear in the user’s personal Facebook feed, though that happens less often since Facebook changed the algorithm that controls the feed. Posts to congressional pages are subject to less restrictions than the ads, so members can tell users more about what they are doing.
Saez said Facebook ads are a costeffective way of giving people an opportunity to engage with lawmakers.
“Members must conform to strict rules to ensure the communications are proper,” she said. “Offices use the tools that Facebook provides to target our ads to constituents who are likely going to want to see content from members, just as a small business would target ads to prospective customers. We do not ‘obtain’ any private information from Facebook users.”
“Facebook, and social media in general, provides a modern way to directly reach constituents and allows them to provide direct feedback,” said Chris Berardi, spokesman for Rep. Francis Rooney, R-Fla. “Our goal is to reach as many constituents as possible in whatever manner they choose to consume their information.”
Rooney, a freshman, spent the most of any member directly on Facebook ads last year, $13,300. The highest direct spending by a Democrat was another freshman, Rep. Lou Correa, D-Calif., who spent $12,600.