Washington state sues Google and Facebook for failing to keep ad laws
Campaign finance laws in the state require ad sellers to keep track of who is behind ads and how much is spent, and to make the information available to the public
San Francisco — The US state of Washington on Monday announced it was suing Google and Facebook for not abiding by local law requirements regarding keeping records of political ads and their backers. Campaign finance laws in that state called on ad sellers to keep track of who was behind ads and how much was spent, and to make the information available to the public, Washington attorney-general Bob Ferguson said in a release. Suits filed in state court accuse Facebook and Google of failing to meet these obligations since 2013. "Washington’s political advertising disclosure laws apply to everyone, whether you are a small-town newspaper or a large corporation," Ferguson said in the release. In the past decade, Washington candidates and political committees reported about $3.4m in payments to Facebook and $1.5m to Google related to advertising, according to the state attorney-general. Google and Facebook dominate the market for online advertising. Google and Facebook are among internet...
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