Senators demand disclosures in online political ads
Technology industry mobilizes army of lobbyists, lawyers to shape rules
WASHINGTON — Sen. John McCain and two Democratic senators moved on Thursday to force Facebook, Google and other internet companies to disclose who is purchasing online political advertising, after revelations that Russian-linked operatives bought deceptive ads in the run-up to the 2016 election with no disclosure required.
But the tech industry, which has worked to thwart previous efforts to mandate such disclosure, is mobilizing an army of lobbyists and lawyers — including a senior adviser to Hillary Clinton’s campaign — to help shape proposed regulations. Long before the 2016 election, the adviser, Marc E. Elias, helped Facebook and Google request exemptions from the Federal Election Commission to existing disclosure rules, arguing that ads on the respective platforms were too small to fit disclaimers listing their sponsors.
Now Elias’ high-powered Democratic election law firm, Perkins Coie, is helping the companies navigate legal and regulatory issues arising from scrutiny of the Russian-linked ads, which critics say might have been flagged by the disclaimers. In a two-front war, tech companies are targeting an election commission rule-making process that was restarted last month and a legislative effort in the Senate.
“I’m not going to tell you they support this bill right now,” said Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D- Minn., the lead author of the proposed Honest Ads Act.
But she and her co-author, Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., urged the social media firms to take greater responsibility for the content that lands on their sites, including political ads and other content meant to sow discord or chaos. With Facebook and Google alone capturing an estimated 85 percent of all digital political ads, self-policing will not cut it, they said.
‘Unique and evolving’
Since 2006, most online political activity has been exempt from the rigorous regulations to which paid television, radio and print political advertising has been subject for years. The Federal Election Commission justified the so-called internet exemption rule by declaring the internet “a unique and evolving mode of mass communication and political speech that is distinct from other media in a manner that warrants a restrained regulatory approach.”
That attitude has many fewer adherents after the revelations that, in the runup to the 2016 election, Facebook sold more than $100,000 worth of ads to a Russian company linked to the Kremlin, while Google sold at least $4,700 worth of ads to accounts believed to be connected to the Russian government.
Federal election law bars foreigners from spending money to attempt to influence U.S. elections.
“It’s ridiculous,” said Ann Ravel, a Democrat who served on the election commission from 2013 until this year. “We need to rethink all the exemptions for the internet because even if Facebook might not have known about the Russian advertising, they knew — and we all knew — that this was possible.”
The new bill would require internet companies to provide information to the election commission about who is paying for online ads.
The content and purchasers of the Russialinked ads that ran on Facebook and Google in 2016 “are a mystery to the public because of outdated laws that have failed to keep up with evolving technology,” Klobuchar and Warner added.
Ramped up lobbying
The regulatory pressure comes at a particularly trying time for Google, Facebook and other tech giants. The companies, once celebrated as benevolent drivers of innovation and economic growth, are facing mounting criticism on both sides of the Atlantic for complex tax avoidance efforts, the hosting of pages used in sex trafficking, lax privacy protections and increasing monopoly power.
In response, they have ramped up lobbying and public relations campaigns, with Facebook’s chief operating officer, Sheryl Sandberg, last week whirring through Washington on an apology tour and charm offensive.
Yet government officials working on the investigations into the Russianfunded ads and the ad requirements say Facebook and Google have been less than enthusiastic partners.
After initially resisting requests to turn over Russian-linked ads, Facebook has provided them to a congressional committee investigating Russian meddling in the 2016 election. But Google has yet to do so, and neither company has made the ads public.