Meta, Facebook's parent company, will be fined $2.46 million for violating the Fair Campaign Practices Act of Washington. The main objective of this Act is to ensure transparency in the electoral process and to encourage fair conduct in political campaigns. However, the court fined this for showing meta political ads without maintaining transparency.
Last Monday, the Washington State Court of Appeals upheld a 2022 decision that upheld the fine.
The lawsuit against Meta was filed in 2020 by Attorney General and Governor-elect Bob Ferguson. The lawsuit alleges the company willfully violated the law 800 times. Meta sold political ads. However, the company has not maintained transparency about this to the users.
In 2022, King County Superior Court Judge Douglas North imposed the maximum penalty against Meta Company. Among these fines, attorney's fees against Meta were $1.5 million.
In a news release, Public Disclosure Commission (PDC) Chairman Allen Hayward said, 'More than 50 years ago, Washington state voters made a strong commitment to political spending transparency.
The Court of Appeal agreed with the PDC that 'this applies equally to modern political advertisements.'
According to the PDC, this is the largest fine in US history imposed for campaign finance violations. The court found that Mater had deliberately violated these laws. For this, the penalty has been tripled.
The Fair Campaign Practices Act, passed in 1972, requires advertisers to disclose the names and addresses of political ad buyers, the age and other characteristics of the ad's target audience, and the number of ad views. The lawsuit alleges that Facebook sold hundreds of ads to political committees but did not disclose that information.
Ferguson sued Facebook for similar violations in 2018. As a result, the company paid a fine of $238,000. After that, Facebook said, they will no longer sell political ads in Washington.
Judge North noted in his ruling that between 2019 and 2021, three individuals sought advertising information from Meta. But Meta never provided this information to those people.
The Public Disclosure Commission investigated the case and referred it to the Attorney General's Office. Then in 2020, Ferguson filed a lawsuit against Facebook again.
Ferguson said in 2020, 'Whether it's a big tech company or a small newspaper, anyone who sells political ads must follow our campaign finance laws. Washingtonians have a right to know who is behind the ads being shown to influence their vote.
Meta tried to have the case dismissed in August 2022. Washington's campaign finance laws were declared unconstitutional. They argue that the law 'puts undue pressure on political speech' and is 'almost impossible to fully enforce.'
Meta has not commented on the new fine.
