online political advertising

Federal Election Commission Adopts New Rules for Sponsorship Disclaimers for Online Political Advertising – And to Consider Rules for Political Marketing Through Social Media Influencers

By David Oxenford|2022-12-05T11:23:32-06:00December 5th, 2022|Legal News|

Last week, the Federal Election Commission (FEC) adopted new disclaimer requirements for internet-based political advertising, including the identification of the ad sponsor. This decision resolves many of the issues that have been debated at the FEC for over a decade as to what internet content is considered a “public communication” that requires a disclosure of... Continue Reading…

This Week in Regulation for Broadcasters: November 26 to December 2 , 2022

By David Oxenford|2022-12-04T09:44:10-06:00December 4th, 2022|Legal News|

In a very busy week, here are some of the regulatory developments of significance to broadcasters from the past week, with links to where you can go to find more information as to how these actions may affect your operations. The Federal Trade Commission and seven state Attorneys General announced a settlement with Google LLC... Continue Reading…

As More Political Advertising Moves Online, State Laws Provide the Regulatory Framework for Disclosures and Recordkeeping

By David Oxenford|2022-09-29T10:47:25-05:00September 29th, 2022|Legal News|

In a recent state court decision, a King County judge in Washington State concluded that Facebook violated state political disclosure rules by not publicly providing information about the sale of political ads relating to state elections and ballot issues, as required by state law. While there does not yet appear to be a written decision... Continue Reading…

Facebook to Reject New Political Ads the Week Before the November Election – Why Broadcasters Can’t Do That

By David Oxenford|2022-08-25T10:32:40-05:00August 25th, 2022|Legal News|

Facebook will disable “new” political ads the week before this year’s November mid-term election (see its post on this policy here), just as many broadcast stations will be struggling with commercial inventory issues, trying to get last minute political ads on the air without having to dump all of their regular commercial advertisers who will... Continue Reading…

Sponsorship of Political Advertising On-Air and On-Line – A Video Presentation and a Congressional Research Service Study

By David Oxenford|2020-09-17T22:28:30-05:00September 17th, 2020|Legal News|

Now that we are immersed in the heart of the political broadcasting season, issues of sponsorship identification regularly arise. For on-air broadcasts, any paid advertisement that conveys a message dealing with any controversial issue of public importance (state or federal) requires at a minimum an on-air sponsorship identification stating that the ad was “paid for”... Continue Reading…

Facebook Defends Not Censoring Political Ads – Looking at the Differences In Regulation of Political Speech on Different Communications Platforms

By David Oxenford|2020-06-12T11:25:18-05:00June 12th, 2020|Legal News|

The question about what to do with the protections offered by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act took another turn this week, when Joe Biden suggested that online platforms needed to take responsibility for the content posted on them and correct misinformation in those ads. That position is seemingly the opposite of the President’s... Continue Reading…

Facebook Not Fact-Checking Candidate Ads – Looking at the Contrast Between Online Political Ads and Those Running on Broadcast and Cable

By David Oxenford|2020-01-13T11:02:42-06:00January 13th, 2020|Legal News|

This weekend, the New York Times ran an article seemingly critical of Facebook for not rejecting ads from political candidates that contained false statements of fact. We have already written that this policy of Facebook matches the policy that Congress has imposed on broadcast stations and local cable franchisees who sell time to political candidates... Continue Reading…

Court of Appeals Finds Maryland Law Imposing Political Disclosure Obligations on Online Platforms to be Unconstitutional – Finding Different Treatment of Broadcasters is Justified

By David Oxenford|2019-12-11T10:51:45-06:00December 11th, 2019|Legal News|

Late last week, the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit issued a decision in a case called Washington Post v. David J. McManus, upholding the ruling of the US District Court finding that the State of Maryland’s attempts to impose political advertising reporting obligations on online platforms to be an unconstitutional abridgment of these... Continue Reading…

June Regulatory Dates for Broadcasters – EEO, Translators, Political Rules and Earth Stations

By David Oxenford|2018-05-30T09:25:23-05:00May 30th, 2018|Legal News|

For radio and television stations with 5 or more full-time employees located in Arizona, Idaho, Maryland, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, Ohio, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, Wyoming, and the District of Columbia, June 1 brings the requirement that you upload to your online inspection file your Annual EEO Public Inspection File Report detailing your employment outreach...… Continue Reading