Notwithstanding the recent indictments by Special Counsel Robert Mueller in the Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election, experts fear more meddling in 2018, especially since Congress has done nothing and President Donald Trump has shown no leadership. Attention is now on the states, especially California, who has shown the way in the past in setting nationwide standards, reference automobile emissions. California has already stepped up in passing the Disclose Act that requires disclaimers for political ads on social media. (San Francisco Chronicle, February 18, 2018, by Ian Vandewalker and Larry Norden)
Democratic legislators in New York are proposing a law outlawing anonymous political ads on Facebook and other social media. In December, Governor Andrew Cuomo asked for laws on internet political ads to help fight Russian election meddling, but it is unclear if Republicans will back the laws. (WRVO Public Media, February 16, 2018, by Karen DeWitt)
Besides disclosure of who is paying for ads on the internet, Cuomo’s proposal would require internet companies that take money for ads to maintain an open file on entities responsible for the content. (The New York Times, December 21, 2018, by Jesse McKinley)
Online ads have lacked transparency with no agency responsible to require reports on spending and access to the identities of those buying ads. (Sunlight Foundation, November 2015, by Jenn Topper with contributions from Louis Serino)
The advertising industry doubts that Congressional efforts to regulate online political ads will succeed. They favor “click through, hover over, and similar types of disclosure” for ads for political candidates but point out that many of the ads focused on political and social issues and spread through Twitter and Facebook. It would be difficult to regulate that type of discourse without running up against the First Amendment. (Digital News Daily, October 22, 2017, by Wendy Davis)