Verdicts & sentences

Meta Fined $24.7M for Campaign Finance Violations

OCT 27 2022·Updated OCT 31 2022

Story

Image credit: Getty Images [via The Daily Beast]

The Facts

A state of Washington judge fined Meta — Facebook's parent company — $24.7M on Wednesday after the firm was found to have intentionally breached campaign finance laws hundreds of times.
Axios
King County Superior Court Judge Douglass North found that Meta violated Washington's Fair Campaign Practices Act 822 times, imposing the $30K maximum penalty for each violation.
Newsmax
Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson said the fine — against Facebook's conduct dating back to 2018 — "represents the largest campaign finance penalty anywhere in the country — ever."
ATG
Prior to the ruling, Meta objected to the requirements and argued in a summary judgment motion that Washington’s law "unduly burdens political speech" and is "virtually impossible to comply with."
US News
The transparency law, passed roughly 50 years ago, requires ad sellers to disclose the names and addresses of those who buy political ads, the target of the ads, and the total number of views of each ad.
US News
The Attorney General's office said, "Meta continued to run Washington political ads without maintaining the required information" after previously paying a fine of $238K in 2018, prompting the second lawsuit. Meta will also have to reimburse the attorney general's costs and pay 12% interest per year on the total judgment.
Axios

Sources Split

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CENTER

RIGHT

ESTAB
CRIT

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ESTAB

The Spin

Narrative A

This wasn't an honest mistake or ignorance about Washington's state laws. Meta was well aware of the requirements and decided to ignore them. Hubris of this kind deserves the maximum penalty.

The Wenatchee World

Narrative B

Meta spends billions of dollars making sure its platforms conform to electoral policies and safeguards — including transparency in political ads. However, Washington's law is almost impossible to comply with given the number of ads run on a social media site as large as Facebook.