Earlier quoted context omitted.
Washington AG Bob Ferguson has a history of filing activist lawsuits.
Is an Attorney General enforcing the laws of the state "activist"?
Depends on whether your party leader is declared above the law.
State of Washington sues Facebook and Google over failure to disclose spending
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Re: State of Washington sues Facebook and Google over failure to disclose spending
#22Earlier quoted context omitted.
Washington AG Bob Ferguson has a history of filing activist lawsuits.
Is an Attorney General enforcing the laws of the state "activist"?
Nowadays the answer to that question seems to be different for any person you ask, and dependent on whether or not the law being enforced aligns with said individual's ideological beliefs.
That's part of the problem not only in the US, but in the West in general at the moment.
That said, when you read the law, it's clear that Google and Facebook are in violation of it. They aren't providing requested political ad spend information to residents of Washington state on the spot. That Google and Facebook don't like a law does not confer to them the right to violate it.
Re: State of Washington sues Facebook and Google over failure to disclose spending
#23How many of the funders breached federal or state mandated limits on spending? I ask, because in the "brexit" circumstances it becomes clear the "leave" campaign eggregiously breached the declared public advertising spending limits through use of indirect/third-party funding channels who did placement in social media.
This isn't strictly illegal in the U.S. due to the Citizens United decision. Because of free speech blah blah blah I can spend an unlimited amount of money for a cause or canidate as long as I don't coordinate with that campaign.
And apparently the definition of "coordinate" is quite flexible. E.g.: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/here-are-the-secret-...
In practice, I'm not sure sufficiently rich people face any practical limits in influencing elections.
Re: State of Washington sues Facebook and Google over failure to disclose spending
#24Earlier quoted context omitted.
Washington AG Bob Ferguson has a history of filing activist lawsuits.
Is an Attorney General enforcing the laws of the state "activist"?
I think the "activist" angle comes from being a state AG who regularly and publicly gets involved in the national discussion from the state-level chair they have. I wouldn't say it's a bad characteristic in an AG, but it's perhaps a bit unusual?
Another example would be New York's (former) AG, Eric Schneiderman, who has filed "over 50 lawsuits opposing Trump's environmental revisions", and of course, actively pursued Harvey Weinstein before resigning due to his own sexual harassment allegations.
I would guess that AG's regularly inserting themselves into the national conversation while being very public about it on Twitter and the like, especially, are prepping for a run at a more national political campaign in the future.
Re: State of Washington sues Facebook and Google over failure to disclose spending
#25Earlier quoted context omitted.
How does an ad seller know whether an ad buy is "political"? Requiring the seller to keep records seems reasonable, but requiring the seller to make records, does not. That is, an ad seller ought not be expected to know which incoming buys are political. That ought to be the responsibility of the buyer/"creatives" to declare.
Because the buyers are all registered political entities: candidates' campaigns, political action committees, etc. It's illegal for a "regular person" to go buy political ads and not register with the state.
That sounds like an outrageous First Amendment violation.
Re: State of Washington sues Facebook and Google over failure to disclose spending
#26Earlier quoted context omitted.
Because the buyers are all registered political entities: candidates' campaigns, political action committees, etc. It's illegal for a "regular person" to go buy political ads and not register with the state.
That sounds like an outrageous First Amendment violation.
No one is stopping that person from buying anything; they just have to register first.
Re: State of Washington sues Facebook and Google over failure to disclose spending
#27The numbers reported strike me as very small (I buy digital political ads for work). Especially 1.1mm in 2016 for FB statewide strikes me as tiny!
Looking at official candidate committees for Senate+Congress only in '16 is close-ish to 30mm raised (1). Plus PACs, 501c3/4s, any Presidential spend on top, I would guess double that at least. Even if 50mm total spend that would be only 2% spent on FB which seems really low, based on a low spend estimate.
I wonder where they got these numbers...
[1] https://www.opensecrets.org/races/election?cycle=2016&id=WA
Re: State of Washington sues Facebook and Google over failure to disclose spending
#28Re: State of Washington sues Facebook and Google over failure to disclose spending
#29Earlier quoted context omitted.
This isn't strictly illegal in the U.S. due to the Citizens United decision. Because of free speech blah blah blah I can spend an unlimited amount of money for a cause or canidate as long as I don't coordinate with that campaign.
And apparently the definition of "coordinate" is quite flexible. E.g.: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/here-are-the-secret-... In practice, I'm not sure sufficiently rich people face any practical limits in influencing elections.
It has been repeatedly shown that the Sufficiently Rich face virtually no limits, restrictions, penalties, etc.
Re: State of Washington sues Facebook and Google over failure to disclose spending
#30Could you change the title to say "State of Washington"?