Posted on 04/14/2020 5:48:36 PM PDT by yesthatjallen
Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson filed a lawsuit Tuesday against Facebook, saying the company has “repeatedly and openly” violated state campaign transparency laws by selling political ads without providing legally required details of the spending.
The lawsuit, filed in King County Superior Court, is the second such case against the online social media giant by Ferguson’s office. A similar lawsuit in 2018 resulted in Facebook paying $238,000 to the state in penalties and legal costs.
The new lawsuit comes after the state Public Disclosure Commission (PDC) in February rejected a proposed $75,000 settlement to address continuing violations, and referred a complaint to the Attorney General’s Office for further investigation.
After the 2018 lawsuit settlement, Facebook voluntarily announced it would stop selling political ads in Washington. But the company has continued to accept them, selling at least 171 ads to Washington state political committees, which have paid the company at least $525,000 since November 2018, according to the Attorney General’s Office. For example, the company accepted ads in Seattle’s 2019 City Council races, as well as for a wide array of other campaigns across the state, including candidates for state representative, the Port of Tacoma commission, Spokane’s City Council and Vancouver’s school board.
It’s not illegal for Facebook to sell such ads, nor for candidates to buy them. However, Facebook is supposed to comply with state law for any such ads by publicly providing details including names of candidates or measures supported; dates the ads ran; names and addresses of persons sponsoring the ads; as well as the total cost of the ads, who paid for them, and what method of payment was used.
SNIP
(Excerpt) Read more at seattletimes.com ...
The four worst Governors (Whitmer, Insley, Newsom and Northam) all have Attorney’s Generals that are as equally as bad as the Governors.
Inslee + Ferguson = Absolute worst pair in history. Ferguson must go to sleep at night thinking who he can sue next. Hate to say it, but the man is evil.
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