The Federal Election Commission passes new digital ad transparency rule

The Federal Election Commission introduces a new digital ad transparency rule requiring disclaimers on paid political ads online. Initially broader in scope, the revised version scales back, removing the requirement for those promoting digital political ads to disclose if they are paid.

The US Federal Election Commission passed a new ad transparency rule to enforce ‘paid for by’ disclaimers on the most paid political promotions online. However, the initial proposal was broader in scope and covered ‘communications placed or promoted for a fee on another person’s website, digital device, application, service, or advertising platform’. The proposal was criticised for being ‘burdensome’ and ‘expanding’ the FEC’s regulatory authority over online speech. The revised version is almost identical, whereby ‘or promoted’ is removed from the sentence. The small change in wording significantly reduced the scope of the regulation, exempting those who promote digital political ads from disclosing if they are being paid to do so.