Bill Designed To Halt Election Meddling On Social Media

Bipartisan legislation to boost social media ad transparency and curb foreign influence in elections was introduced Thursday, the latest congressional response to the role of Russian hackers using Facebook and other social media to influence the 2016 election, according to The Hill.

Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Mark Warner (D-Va.), along with Republican Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), are supporting the bill, which aims to put social media companies on par with radio and TV in their disclosure requirements.

“It’s our hope that social media companies, the platform companies will work with us,” Warner said. “The leadership of Facebook recently said they’ll do everything they can to keep our community safe from interference. If they believe those statements, [they should] work with us to get these common sense, light-touch regulations in place.”

The proposed legislation will affect websites, apps, search engines, social media and ad networks with over 50 million unique visitors.

Such platforms would be required to provide data on campaigns that spend at least $500 on political ads a year. Necessary information would include copies of ads, information about groups purchasing ads and data on who the ads may have targeted.

Additionally, like TV regulations, the social media ads must clearly show who is funding such content. The ads encompass paid political advertisements on these digital platforms, made by or on behalf of candidates or encompassing national issues.

Lawmakers have clashed with technology companies since Facebook revealed that Russian actors purchased 3,000 ads on its platform around the time of the 2016 election. Warner and others charged that Facebook was not being forthcoming as to the extent of Russian influence on its platform. He later hammered Twitter for its “disappointing” briefing of the Senate Intelligence Committee, saying that wanted the company to offer a more detailed analysis of influence on its platform.