Facebook Seeks Big Change in WA Campaign Finance Laws

WA State Attorney General Bob Ferguson plans to file a response to social media giant Facebook today, Tuesday, August 16th.

   Facebook seeking to have lawsuit dropped over disclosure laws.

According to information released Tuesday by the AG's office, Facebook has filed what is called a summary judgment request, asking for requirements to be dropped concerning WA state campaign finance disclosure laws.

From the AG's office:

"Specifically, Meta is seeking to eliminate the law’s requirement that commercial advertisers, like Meta and any other company that runs campaign ads in Washington, maintain records on campaign ads and make them available to the public. This requirement applies to Washington television stations, newspapers, and other places where political committees place advertisements."

Ferguson's office said Facebook (Meta) is a repeat violator of these campaign finance laws.

Earlier in July, Ferguson filed a summary judgment asking a judge to force Facebook to make all the required data public. Facebook responded by filing a summary judgment request to dismiss all the AG's demands.

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This tug-of-war dates back nearly three years, to 2020, when WA state first went after the social media giant for alleged violations of these campaign finance and other disclosure laws.  According to Ferguson's office, Washington state's campaign finance laws are the "best in the nation."

 A judge will rule on these motions in September

A judge will render a decision on these matters at a hearing scheduled for September 2nd.