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15/03/2018

New Rules For Online Political Ad In US To Put Facebook, Google In A Tough Situation




New Rules For Online Political Ad In US To Put Facebook, Google In A Tough Situation
New rules for internet advertising for political ad buyers could put them in the face of stricter disclosure mandates if the U.S. Federal Election Commission (FCE) enacts the laws.
 
Political ad seekers would have to disclose the identity of the sponsors of online advertisements if the new rules, the first related to inline disclosures requirements since 2006, as proposed by the FEC is enacted into law.  
 
There is anticipation and concern that in 2018, Russia will again attempt to influence elections in the U.S. as it did in 2016 and this forms the back ground of the new regulations. Russia was cited as a reason for “swift action” by a memorandum by vice chair Ellen Weintraub which was sent along with a preliminary draft of the proposed regulations in February.
 
The current rules mandated that such disclaimers should be mandatorily provided for inline ads as well, said FEC chairwoman Caroline Hunter on Wednesday. “This rule making is to provide even more clarity, because obviously the technology has changed a lot,” she said. “We’re looking for substantive comments on the technological aspects of this.”
 
Ads that are designed for online solicitations to raise money for a political committee or candidate or those that are purchased to expressly attempt to influence voters for the election or defeat of a federal candidate would have the new regulations applied. Disclaimers would also have to be made for online advertisements that are intended for other issues like the spreading of the political position of a party on a particular issue.
 
The disclosures by online platforms such as Facebook and Google would entail providing information about the audiences that the ads seek to appeal to and the amount that is spent for the ads apart from the details of the ad purchaser. And in a manner similar to the present requirements for television and radio and cable network advertisements, such disclosures would have to be made to the Federal Communications Commission.
 
“The (earlier) law didn’t give us a lot of guidance on how to do these disclaimers online,” said Weintraub. Manner in which different digital media would have to make disclosures would be provided in the proposed new rules “My own bias is that I’d like to get as much information on the face of the ad because people don’t always click through,” she said.
Efforts to ushers in more transparency with respect to online ads for political parties was attempted to be introduced by Facebook chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg in September.

A searchable archive would be created by Facebook to enable users to clearly see the sponsor of the ads, the amount that was being spent, the intended audience of the ad and the number of insertions of the ads on the user’s screen, said Rob Goldman, vice president of advertising, in a blog post later.
 
The commissioners would have to make a unanimous decision by voting to enable advancing the rules.
 
(Source:www.livemint.com)

Christopher J. Mitchell

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