Threats to American democracy go beyond well-publicized attacks on the U.S. Capitol or cyberattacks on election software or lies about election results. They also include the intentional flouting of campaign laws and open disdain for the will of the people as expressed through those laws.
Meta, the parent company of Facebook, for years has ignored Washington campaign laws and should be punished to the fullest extent.
Dating to when it was known simply as Facebook, the company has sold advertising space for political purposes in Washington without making information about those sales available to the public.
Washington law requires that information about who paid for political advertising be provided upon request. This falls under the purview of the Washington State Public Disclosure Commission, which was created with voter passage of Initiative 276 in 1972.
The law declares, “The public’s right to know of the financing of political campaigns and lobbying and the financial affairs of elected officials and candidates far outweighs any right that these matters remain secret and private.” Washington citizens and politicians have lived by that ethos for 50 years.
Facebook, however, has opted for secrecy and privacy — to the detriment of the public. A King County Superior Court judge recently concluded that the company intentionally broke the law on 822 occasions, selling political ads without offering clarity about the financing for those sales.
The maximum penalty for each violation is $10,000, but a judge may triple the amount for punitive damages, leaving the corporation liable for up to $24.6 million. The justice system should fine Meta the maximum amount, as requested by state Attorney General Bob Ferguson.
This is not a matter of ignorance of the law or an honest mistake by a global corporation. This is a matter of repeated violations by a company that believes it is above the law or can weasel its way out of accountability.
In 2018, Facebook was found responsible for similar violations and announced that it would stop selling political advertising in Washington.
It didn’t.
Instead, it continued the violations for subsequent elections while engaging in subterfuge and opaqueness. When called to account for these new violations, the company argued that Washington’s law is unconstitutional — the last refuge of a scoundrel when caught with blatant violations.
Rather than give credence to Meta’s specious argument, the judge cited the company’s “pattern of knowing and repeated violations” and “lack of good faith and failure to acknowledge and take responsibility for its violations.”
The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that money is speech in political campaigns, but that does not preclude states from demanding transparency. Washington voters long have held that they deserve to know who is spending how much on ads supporting a particular candidate. With that guiding philosophy, it is not a coincidence that our state often is lauded for having some of the nation’s strongest campaign transparency laws.
But laws are only as strong as their enforcement. At a time when keeping bad actors from influencing our elections is of primal importance, Meta should be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law.
While a fine likely will have little impact on a company with annual revenue of $117 billion, it will demonstrate that our state is determined to protect and defend our elections. The people of Washington deserve nothing less.
