Online platforms such as Facebook and Google have stepped up efforts to grab more campaign ad dollars. Making it easier: Political operatives have been lured by the ability to sidestep disclosure rules that fill political files at radio and television stations. But a bill afoot in Congress would work to level the playing field between broadcasters and digital companies.
Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Mark Warner (D-VA) are putting the finishing touches on legislation that would require companies such as Facebook, Twitter and Google to place information in a publicly accessible file revealing who has paid for advertisements and paid posts on the social media platforms and other websites in the companies’ network. The goal is to increase transparency in paid political messages in the wake of the 2016 election and what U.S. intelligence agencies have said were efforts by Russian actors to sway the outcome. It’s not clear how detailed the reports will be, such as requiring the online companies to disclose what demographic groups, ZIP Codes, and genders are being marketed to.
The online community is gearing up to put its thumbprint on any legislative proposals. Dave Grimaldi, executive VP of public policy at the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), says they view this as an issue of free speech—and an open internet. “Growing the vibrant media ecosystem, keeping the public trust and enhancing the transparency of our industry—for online ads in particular—are goals we share with Senators Klobuchar and Warner,” he said in a statement. “We look forward to working with them to advance this shared objective while maintaining and protecting the First Amendment rights political ads embody.” Borrell Associates estimates $800 million was spent on digital political advertising last year.
In an effort to sidestep federal regulations, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced last month that the company will voluntarily put disclosure requirements into place for all political ad buys on its platform. He also announced the hiring of more than 250 employees to monitor political ads which are typically bought through automated buying systems. But they won’t require ads to be preapproved.
The bill, which is expected to be filed next week, doesn’t have any Republican support so far. But Warner and Klobuchar are reportedly working to bring on GOP lawmakers to help their effort move forward.
New requirements could come down on digital players regardless of what Congress does. The Federal Election Commission has reportedly contacted political media buying agencies to get their feedback on how disclosure rules could be modernized. Among the ideas being floated according to Axios is prohibiting the digital players from allowing campaign ads to be bought through programmatic platforms. Other ideas include requiring online ads to include disclosures about who paid for the ad and the creation of an FEC-administered searchable database that would collect copies of all ads placed.
A group of 20 Democrats from both the House and Senate last month wrote a letter to the FEC asking which steps can be taken to eliminate “existing loopholes” in campaign disclosure requirements, referring to social media platforms as the “most vulnerable to manipulation.” But the move opens the door to wider changes that could also impact radio and TV as they also ask the FEC to look at how disclosure standards can be “improved” to “ensure voters have the information they need to evaluate political advertising” regardless of whether the ad is on broadcast radio or TV or the internet.
Billions of ad dollars are at play in the coming year. Kantar CMAG estimates $2.4 billion will be allocated to local broadcast TV in 2018 with an additional $850 million for local cable and $600 million for digital, driven mostly by advertising on Facebook. Despite the rise of digital and 2016’s bungled predictions, CMAG predicts that TV will once again dominate 2018 election spending.
