The mid-term election season is still months away and some members of Congress think the campaign lull is a perfect time to look at advertising guidelines. They’re asking the Federal Election Commission to look into whether social media companies like Facebook and Twitter should face the same scrutiny as radio and television stations when selling political advertising.
In a letter to the FEC the lawmakers ask 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 group of 20 Democrats from both the House and Senate also opens the door to wider changes that could also impact radio and TV. They are asking 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.
The new scrutiny on political ads comes after Facebook revealed it had sold $150,000 in advertising to Russian-backed entities during last year’s presidential election. “To be clear, our concerns do not lie with American citizens, interest groups, campaigns, or political action committees engaging in their Constitutional right to freely discuss the idea and issues of the day to effectuate political or social change,” the lawmakers told the FEC. “Rather, we must address the threat posed by foreign citizens, companies, or organizations who aim to illegally interfere with our political process.”
There’s also reportedly some discussion of drafting legislative proposals, but with such bills unlikely to be advanced in a Republican-controlled Congress, the FEC is seen as the best course to take at the moment. The Democrats are asking the FEC to respond to its inquiry by Oct. 4. “We are fast approaching the 2018 election cycle. As such, it is imperative the Federal Election Commission begin this effort in earnest,” they wrote in the letter. The last time the FEC examined online advertising was in 2006.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced on Thursday that the company will voluntarily put disclosure requirements into place for all political ad buys on its platform. He also announced more than 250 employees to monitor political ads which are typically bought through automated buying systems. But they won’t require ads be preapproved. “Freedom means you don’t have to ask permission first and that by default you can say what you want,” Zuckerberg beamed in a statement aired on Facebook Live.
The prospect of reexamining campaign advertising rules may worry some broadcasters who fear additional filing obligations will fall to stations with a further expansion of political file requirements. But a case could also be made for a leveling of the playing field. Albert Gidari, director of privacy at Stanford Law School’s Center for Internet & Society, told the Wall Street Journal that because the rules were mostly adopted in the pre-digital era they put radio and TV stations at a disadvantage. “Traditional brick-and-mortar platforms like radio and television don’t have the same protections that the internet companies do,” he said. Ever since 1938 stations have been required to disclose whoever paid for a political commercial. And since June 2016 stations in the top 50 markets have been required to put their political file online—a dictate that will expand to the rest of radio next March.
Kantar Media estimates online media companies pocketed $750 million in political ad buys last year, which is three-times as much as was spent during the previous presidential campaign cycle.
