II
118THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 486
To enhance transparency and accountability for online political advertisements
by requiring those who purchase and publish such ads to disclose infor-
mation about the advertisements to the public, and for other purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
FEBRUARY16, 2023
Ms. K
LOBUCHAR(for herself, Mr. GRAHAM, and Mr. WARNER) introduced the
following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on
Rules and Administration
A BILL
To enhance transparency and accountability for online polit-
ical advertisements by requiring those who purchase and
publish such ads to disclose information about the adver-
tisements to the public, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Honest Ads Act’’. 4
SEC. 2. PURPOSE. 5
The purpose of this subtitle is to enhance the integ-6
rity of American democracy and national security by im-7
proving disclosure requirements for online political adver-8
VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:18 Mar 09, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S486.IS S486
pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 2
•S 486 IS
tisements in order to uphold the Supreme Court’s well- 1
established standard that the electorate bears the right to 2
be fully informed. 3
SEC. 3. FINDINGS. 4
Congress makes the following findings: 5
(1) In 2002, the Bipartisan Campaign Reform 6
Act of 2002 (Public Law 107–155) became law, es-7
tablishing disclosure requirements for political adver-8
tisements distributed from a television or radio 9
broadcast station or provider of cable or satellite tel-10
evision. In 2003, the Supreme Court upheld regula-11
tions on electioneering communications established 12
under the Act, noting that such requirements ‘‘pro-13
vide the electorate with information and insure that 14
the voters are fully informed about the person or 15
group who is speaking.’’ The Court reaffirmed this 16
conclusion in 2010 by an 8–1 vote. 17
(2) In its 2006 rulemaking, the Federal Elec-18
tion Commission, the independent Federal agency 19
charged with protecting the integrity of the Federal 20
campaign finance process, noted that 18 percent of 21
all Americans cited the internet as their leading 22
source of news about the 2004 Presidential election. 23
By contrast, Gallup and the Knight Foundation 24
found in 2020 that the majority of Americans, 58 25
VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:18 Mar 09, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S486.IS S486
pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 3
•S 486 IS
percent, got most of their news about elections on-1
line. 2
(3) According to studies from AdImpact and 3
Borrell Associates, in 2020, an estimated 4
$1,700,000,000 was spent on online political adver-5
tising, more than 10 times the amount spent in 6
2012. 7
(4) In order to enhance transparency of all po-8
litical advertisement funding, it is prudent to extend 9
to online internet platforms the same types of polit-10
ical advertisement disclosure requirements applicable 11
to broadcast television and radio stations, and pro-12
viders of cable and satellite television. 13
(5) Effective and complete transparency for vot-14
ers must include information about the true and 15
original source of money given, transferred, and 16
spent on political advertisements made online. 17
(6) Requiring the disclosure of this information 18
is a necessary and narrowly tailored means to in-19
form the voting public of who is behind digital ad-20
vertising disseminated to influence their votes and to 21
enable the Federal Election Commission and the De-22
partment of Justice to detect and prosecute illegal 23
foreign spending on local, State, and Federal elec-24
tions and other campaign finance violations. 25
VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:18 Mar 09, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S486.IS S486
pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 4
•S 486 IS
(7) Paid advertising on large online platforms is 1
different from advertising placed on other common 2
media in terms of the comparatively low cost of 3
reaching large numbers of people, the availability of 4
sophisticated microtargeting, and the ease with 5
which online advertisers, particularly those located 6
outside the United States, can evade disclosure re-7
quirements. Requiring large online platforms to 8
maintain public files of information about the online 9
political ads they disseminate is the best and least 10
restrictive means to ensure the voting public has 11
complete information about who is trying to influ-12
ence their votes and to aid enforcement of other 13
laws, including the prohibition on foreign money in 14
domestic campaigns. 15
(8) The reach of a few large internet plat-16
forms—larger than any broadcast, satellite, or cable 17
provider—has greatly facilitated the scope and effec-18
tiveness of disinformation campaigns. For instance, 19
the largest platform has over 247,000,000 American 20
users—over 153,000,000 of them on a daily basis. 21
By contrast, the largest cable television provider has 22
16,142,000 subscribers, while the largest satellite 23
television provider has 13,300,000 subscribers. And 24
VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:18 Mar 09, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S486.IS S486
pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 5
•S 486 IS
the most-watched television broadcast in United 1
States history had 118,000,000 viewers. 2
(9) The public nature of broadcast television, 3
radio, and satellite ensures a level of publicity for 4
any political advertisement. These communications 5
are accessible to the press, fact-checkers, and polit-6
ical opponents. This creates strong disincentives for 7
a candidate to disseminate materially false, inflam-8
matory, or contradictory messages to the public. So-9
cial media platforms, in contrast, can target portions 10
of the electorate with direct, ephemeral advertise-11
ments often on the basis of private information the 12
platform has on individuals, enabling political adver-13
tisements that are contradictory, racially or socially 14
inflammatory, or materially false. 15
(10) Large social media platforms are the only 16
entities in possession of certain key data related to 17
paid online ads, including the exact audience tar-18
geted by those ads and their number of impressions. 19
Such information, which cannot be reliably disclosed 20
by the purchasers of ads, is extremely useful for in-21
forming the electorate, guarding against corruption, 22
and aiding in the enforcement of existing campaign 23
finance regulations. 24
VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:18 Mar 09, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S486.IS S486
pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 6
•S 486 IS
(11) Paid advertisements on social media plat-1
forms have served as critical tools for foreign online 2
influence campaigns—even those that rely on large 3
amounts of unpaid content—because such ads allow 4
foreign actors to test the effectiveness of different 5
messages, expose their messages to audiences who 6
have not sought out such content, and recruit audi-7
ences for future campaigns and posts. 8
(12) A 2019 Senate Select Committee on 9
Intelligence’s Report on Russian Active Measures 10
Campaigns and Interference in the 2016 U.S. Elec-11
tion Volume 2: Russia’s Use of Social Media with 12
Additional Views, the Committee recommended 13
‘‘that Congress examine legislative approaches to en-14
suring Americans know the sources of online polit-15
ical advertisements. The Federal Election Campaign 16
Act of 1971 requires political advertisements on tele-17
vision, radio and satellite to disclose the sponsor of 18
the advertisement. The same requirements should 19
apply online. This will also help to ensure that the 20
IRA or any similarly situated actors cannot use paid 21
advertisements for purposes of foreign inter-22
ference.’’. 23
(13) On March 16, 2021, the Office of the Di-24
rector of National Intelligence released the declas-25
VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:18 Mar 09, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S486.IS S486
pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 7
•S 486 IS
sified Intelligence Community assessment of foreign 1
threats to the 2020 U.S. Federal elections. The de-2
classified report found: ‘‘Throughout the election 3
cycle, Russia’s online influence actors sought to af-4
fect U.S. public perceptions of the candidates, as 5
well as advance Moscow’s longstanding goals of un-6
dermining confidence in U.S. election processes and 7
increasing sociopolitical divisions among the Amer-8
ican people.’’ The report also determined that Iran 9
sought to influence the election by ‘‘creating and 10
amplifying social media content that criticized [can-11
didates].’’ 12
(14) According to a Wall Street Journal report 13
in April 2021, voluntary ad libraries operated by 14
major platforms rely on foreign governments to self- 15
report political ad purchases. These ad-buys, includ-16
ing those diminishing major human rights violations 17
like the Uighur genocide, are under-reported by for-18
eign government purchasers, with no substantial 19
oversight or repercussions from the platforms. 20
(15) Multiple reports have indicated that online 21
ads have become a key vector for strategic influence 22
by the People’s Republic of China. An April 2021 23
Wall Street Journal report noted that the Chinese 24
Government and Chinese State-owned enterprises 25
VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:18 Mar 09, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S486.IS S486
pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 8
•S 486 IS
are major purchasers of ads on the U.S.’s largest so-1
cial media platform, including to advance Chinese 2
propaganda. 3
(16) Large online platforms have made changes 4
to their policies intended to make it harder for for-5
eign actors to purchase political ads. However, these 6
private actions have not been taken by all platforms, 7
have not been reliably enforced, and are subject to 8
immediate change at the discretion of the platforms. 9
(17) The Federal Election Commission’s cur-10
rent regulations on political advertisements do not 11
provide sufficient transparency to uphold the 12
public’s right to be fully informed about political ad-13
vertisements made online. 14
SEC. 4. SENSE OF CONGRESS. 15
It is the sense of Congress that— 16
(1) the dramatic increase in digital political ad-17
vertisements, and the growing centrality of online 18
platforms in the lives of Americans, requires the 19
Congress and the Federal Election Commission to 20
take meaningful action to ensure that laws and reg-21
ulations provide the accountability and transparency 22
that is fundamental to our democracy; 23
(2) free and fair elections require both trans-24
parency and accountability which give the public a 25
VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:18 Mar 09, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S486.IS S486
pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 9
•S 486 IS
right to know the true sources of funding for polit-1
ical advertisements, be they foreign or domestic, in 2
order to make informed political choices and hold 3
elected officials accountable; and 4
(3) transparency of funding for political adver-5
tisements is essential to enforce other campaign fi-6
nance laws, including the prohibition on campaign 7
spending by foreign nationals. 8
SEC. 5. EXPANSION OF DEFINITION OF PUBLIC COMMU-9
NICATION. 10
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Paragraph (22) of section 301 of 11
the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 (52 U.S.C. 12
30101(22)) is amended by striking ‘‘or satellite commu-13
nication’’ and inserting ‘‘satellite, paid internet, or paid 14
digital communication’’. 15
(b) T
REATMENT OFCONTRIBUTIONS AND EXPENDI-16
TURES.—Section 301 of such Act (52 U.S.C. 30101) is 17
amended— 18
(1) in paragraph (8)(B)(v), by striking ‘‘on 19
broadcasting stations, or in newspapers, magazines, 20
or similar types of general public political adver-21
tising’’ and inserting ‘‘in any public communica-22
tion’’; and 23
(2) in paragraph (9)(B)— 24
VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:18 Mar 09, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00009 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S486.IS S486
pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 10
•S 486 IS
(A) by amending clause (i) to read as fol-1
lows: 2
‘‘(i) any news story, commentary, or 3
editorial distributed through the facilities 4
of any broadcasting station or any print, 5
online, or digital newspaper, magazine, 6
publication, periodical, blog, or platform, 7
unless such broadcasting, print, online, or 8
digital facilities are owned or controlled by 9
any political party, political committee, or 10
candidate;’’; and 11
(B) in clause (iv), by striking ‘‘on broad-12
casting stations, or in newspapers, magazines, 13
or similar types of general public political ad-14
vertising’’ and inserting ‘‘in any public commu-15
nication’’. 16
(c) D
ISCLOSURE AND DISCLAIMERSTATEMENTS.— 17
Subsection (a) of section 318 of such Act (52 U.S.C. 18
30120) is amended— 19
(1) by striking ‘‘financing any communication 20
through any broadcasting station, newspaper, maga-21
zine, outdoor advertising facility, mailing, or any 22
other type of general public political advertising’’ 23
and inserting ‘‘financing any public communication’’; 24
and 25
VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:18 Mar 09, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00010 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S486.IS S486
pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 11
•S 486 IS
(2) by striking ‘‘solicits any contribution 1
through any broadcasting station, newspaper, maga-2
zine, outdoor advertising facility, mailing, or any 3
other type of general public political advertising’’ 4
and inserting ‘‘solicits any contribution through any 5
public communication’’. 6
(d) E
FFECTIVEDATE.—The amendments made by 7
this section shall take effect on the date of the enactment 8
of this Act and shall take effect without regard to whether 9
or not the Federal Election Commission has promulgated 10
the final regulations necessary to carry out this part and 11
the amendments made by this part by the deadline set 12
forth in subsection (e). 13
(e) R
EGULATION.—Not later than 1 year after the 14
date of the enactment of this Act, the Federal Election 15
Commission shall promulgate regulations on what con-16
stitutes a paid internet or paid digital communication for 17
purposes of paragraph (22) of section 301 of the Federal 18
Election Campaign Act of 1971 (52 U.S.C. 30101(22)), 19
as amended by subsection (a), except that such regulation 20
shall not define a paid internet or paid digital communica-21
tion to include communications for which the only pay-22
ment consists of internal resources, such as employee com-23
pensation, of the entity paying for the communication. 24
VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:18 Mar 09, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00011 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S486.IS S486
pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 12
•S 486 IS
SEC. 6. EXPANSION OF DEFINITION OF ELECTIONEERING 1
COMMUNICATION. 2
(a) E
XPANSION TOONLINECOMMUNICATIONS.— 3
(1) A
PPLICATION TO QUALIFIED INTERNET AND 4
DIGITAL COMMUNICATIONS .— 5
(A) I
N GENERAL.—Subparagraph (A) of 6
section 304(f)(3) of the Federal Election Cam-7
paign Act of 1971 (52 U.S.C. 30104(f)(3)(A)) 8
is amended by striking ‘‘or satellite communica-9
tion’’ each place it appears in clauses (i) and 10
(ii) and inserting ‘‘satellite, or qualified internet 11
or digital communication’’. 12
(B) Q
UALIFIED INTERNET OR DIGITAL 13
COMMUNICATION.—Paragraph (3) of section 14
304(f) of such Act (52 U.S.C. 30104(f)) is 15
amended by adding at the end the following 16
new subparagraph: 17
‘‘(D) Q
UALIFIED INTERNET OR DIGITAL 18
COMMUNICATION.—The term ‘qualified internet 19
or digital communication’ means any commu-20
nication which is placed or promoted for a fee 21
on an online platform (as defined in subsection 22
(j)(3)).’’. 23
(2) N
ONAPPLICATION OF RELEVANT ELEC -24
TORATE TO ONLINE COMMUNICATIONS .—Section 25
304(f)(3)(A)(i)(III) of such Act (52 U.S.C. 26
VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:18 Mar 09, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00012 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S486.IS S486
pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 13
•S 486 IS
30104(f)(3)(A)(i)(III)) is amended by inserting ‘‘any 1
broadcast, cable, or satellite’’ before ‘‘communica-2
tion’’. 3
(3) N
EWS EXEMPTION .—Section 4
304(f)(3)(B)(i) of such Act (52 U.S.C. 5
30104(f)(3)(B)(i)) is amended to read as follows: 6
‘‘(i) a communication appearing in a 7
news story, commentary, or editorial dis-8
tributed through the facilities of any 9
broadcasting station or any online or dig-10
ital newspaper, magazine, publication, peri-11
odical, blog, or platform, unless such 12
broadcasting, online, or digital facilities are 13
owned or controlled by any political party, 14
political committee, or candidate;’’. 15
(b) E
FFECTIVEDATE.—The amendments made by 16
this section shall apply with respect to communications 17
made on or after January 1, 2024, and shall take effect 18
without regard to whether or not the Federal Election 19
Commission has promulgated regulations to carry out 20
such amendments. 21
SEC. 7. APPLICATION OF DISCLAIMER STATEMENTS TO ON-22
LINE COMMUNICATIONS. 23
(a) C
LEAR ANDCONSPICUOUSMANNERREQUIRE-24
MENT.—Subsection (a) of section 318 of the Federal Elec-25
VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:18 Mar 09, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00013 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S486.IS S486
pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 14
•S 486 IS
tion Campaign Act of 1971 (52 U.S.C. 30120(a)) is 1
amended— 2
(1) by striking ‘‘shall clearly state’’ each place 3
it appears in paragraphs (1), (2), and (3) and in-4
serting ‘‘shall state in a clear and conspicuous man-5
ner’’; and 6
(2) by adding at the end the following flush 7
sentence: ‘‘For purposes of this section, a commu-8
nication does not make a statement in a clear and 9
conspicuous manner if it is difficult to read or hear 10
or if the placement is easily overlooked.’’. 11
(b) S
PECIALRULES FORQUALIFIEDINTERNET OR 12
D
IGITALCOMMUNICATIONS.— 13
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Section 318 of such Act (52 14
U.S.C. 30120) is amended by adding at the end the 15
following new subsection: 16
‘‘(e) S
PECIALRULES FORQUALIFIEDINTERNET OR 17
D
IGITALCOMMUNICATIONS.— 18
‘‘(1) S
PECIAL RULES WITH RESPECT TO STATE -19
MENTS.—In the case of any qualified internet or 20
digital communication (as defined in section 21
304(f)(3)(D)) which is disseminated through a me-22
dium in which the provision of all of the information 23
specified in this section is not possible, the commu-24
nication shall, in a clear and conspicuous manner— 25
VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:18 Mar 09, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00014 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S486.IS S486
pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 15
•S 486 IS
‘‘(A) state the name of the person who 1
paid for the communication; and 2
‘‘(B) provide a means for the recipient of 3
the communication to obtain the remainder of 4
the information required under this section with 5
minimal effort and without receiving or viewing 6
any additional material other than such re-7
quired information. 8
‘‘(2) S
AFE HARBOR FOR DETERMINING CLEAR 9
AND CONSPICUOUS MANNER .—A statement in quali-10
fied internet or digital communication (as defined in 11
section 304(f)(3)(D)) shall be considered to be made 12
in a clear and conspicuous manner as provided in 13
subsection (a) if the communication meets the fol-14
lowing requirements: 15
‘‘(A) T
EXT OR GRAPHIC COMMUNICA -16
TIONS.—In the case of a text or graphic com-17
munication, the statement— 18
‘‘(i) appears in letters at least as large 19
as the majority of the text in the commu-20
nication; and 21
‘‘(ii) meets the requirements of para-22
graphs (2) and (3) of subsection (c). 23
‘‘(B) A
UDIO COMMUNICATIONS .—In the 24
case of an audio communication, the statement 25
VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:18 Mar 09, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00015 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S486.IS S486
pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 16
•S 486 IS
is spoken in a clearly audible and intelligible 1
manner at the beginning or end of the commu-2
nication and lasts at least 3 seconds. 3
‘‘(C) V
IDEO COMMUNICATIONS .—In the 4
case of a video communication which also in-5
cludes audio, the statement— 6
‘‘(i) is included at either the beginning 7
or the end of the communication; and 8
‘‘(ii) is made both in— 9
‘‘(I) a written format that meets 10
the requirements of subparagraph (A) 11
and appears for at least 4 seconds; 12
and 13
‘‘(II) an audible format that 14
meets the requirements of subpara-15
graph (B). 16
‘‘(D) O
THER COMMUNICATIONS .—In the 17
case of any other type of communication, the 18
statement is at least as clear and conspicuous 19
as the statement specified in subparagraph (A), 20
(B), or (C).’’. 21
(2) N
ONAPPLICATION OF CERTAIN EXCEP -22
TIONS.—The exceptions provided in section 23
110.11(f)(1)(i) and (ii) of title 11, Code of Federal 24
Regulations, or any successor to such rules, shall 25
VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:18 Mar 09, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00016 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S486.IS S486
pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 17
•S 486 IS
have no application to qualified internet or digital 1
communications (as defined in section 304(f)(3)(D) 2
of the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971). 3
(c) M
ODIFICATION OFADDITIONALREQUIREMENTS 4
FORCERTAINCOMMUNICATIONS.—Section 318(d) of such 5
Act (52 U.S.C. 30120(d)) is amended— 6
(1) in paragraph (1)(A)— 7
(A) by striking ‘‘which is transmitted 8
through radio’’ and inserting ‘‘which is in an 9
audio format’’; and 10
(B) by striking ‘‘B
Y RADIO’’ in the heading 11
and inserting ‘‘A
UDIO FORMAT’’; 12
(2) in paragraph (1)(B)— 13
(A) by striking ‘‘which is transmitted 14
through television’’ and inserting ‘‘which is in 15
video format’’; and 16
(B) by striking ‘‘B
Y TELEVISION’’ in the 17
heading and inserting ‘‘V
IDEO FORMAT’’; and 18
(3) in paragraph (2)— 19
(A) by striking ‘‘transmitted through radio 20
or television’’ and inserting ‘‘made in audio or 21
video format’’; and 22
(B) by striking ‘‘through television’’ in the 23
second sentence and inserting ‘‘in video for-24
mat’’. 25
VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:18 Mar 09, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00017 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S486.IS S486
pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 18
•S 486 IS
(d) EFFECTIVEDATE.—The amendment made by 1
subsection (a) shall take effect on the date of the enact-2
ment of this Act and shall take effect without regard to 3
whether or not the Federal Election Commission has pro-4
mulgated regulations to carry out such amendments. 5
SEC. 8. POLITICAL RECORD REQUIREMENTS FOR ONLINE 6
PLATFORMS. 7
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Section 304 of the Federal Elec-8
tion Campaign Act of 1971 (52 U.S.C. 30104) is amended 9
by adding at the end the following new subsection: 10
‘‘(j) D
ISCLOSURE OFCERTAINONLINEADVERTISE-11
MENTS.— 12
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.— 13
‘‘(A) R
EQUIREMENTS FOR ONLINE PLAT -14
FORMS.— 15
‘‘(i) I
N GENERAL.—An online plat-16
form shall maintain, and make available 17
for online public inspection in machine 18
readable format, a complete record of any 19
qualified political advertisement which is 20
purchased by a person whose aggregate 21
purchases of qualified political advertise-22
ments on such online platform during the 23
calendar year exceeds $500. 24
VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:18 Mar 09, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00018 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S486.IS S486
pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 19
•S 486 IS
‘‘(ii) REQUIREMENT RELATING TO PO -1
LITICAL ADS SOLD BY THIRD PARTY AD -2
VERTISING VENDORS.—An online platform 3
that displays a qualified political advertise-4
ment sold by a third party advertising ven-5
dor shall include on its own platform— 6
‘‘(I) an easily accessible and 7
identifiable link to the records main-8
tained by the third-party advertising 9
vendor under clause (i) regarding 10
such qualified political advertisement; 11
or 12
‘‘(II) in any case in which the 13
third party advertising vendor does 14
not make such records available, a 15
statement that no records from the 16
third party advertising vendors 17
records are available. 18
‘‘(B) R
EQUIREMENTS FOR ADVER -19
TISERS.—Any person who purchases a qualified 20
political advertisement on an online platform 21
shall provide the online platform with such in-22
formation as is necessary for the online plat-23
form to comply with the requirements of sub-24
paragraph (A). 25
VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:18 Mar 09, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00019 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S486.IS S486
pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 20
•S 486 IS
‘‘(2) CONTENTS OF RECORD .—A record main-1
tained under paragraph (1)(A) shall contain— 2
‘‘(A) a digital copy of the qualified political 3
advertisement; 4
‘‘(B) a description of the audience that re-5
ceived the advertisement, the number of views 6
generated from the advertisement, and the date 7
and time that the advertisement is first dis-8
played and last displayed; and 9
‘‘(C) information regarding— 10
‘‘(i) the total cost of the advertise-11
ment (which may be rounded to the near-12
est $100); 13
‘‘(ii) the name of the candidate to 14
which the advertisement refers and the of-15
fice to which the candidate is seeking elec-16
tion, the election to which the advertise-17
ment refers, or the national legislative 18
issue to which the advertisement refers (as 19
applicable); 20
‘‘(iii) in the case of a request made 21
by, or on behalf of, a candidate, the name 22
of the candidate, the authorized committee 23
of the candidate, and the treasurer of such 24
committee; and 25
VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:18 Mar 09, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00020 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S486.IS S486
pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 21
•S 486 IS
‘‘(iv) in the case of any request not 1
described in clause (iii), the name of the 2
person purchasing the advertisement, the 3
name and address of a contact person for 4
such person, and a list of the chief execu-5
tive officers or members of the executive 6
committee or of the board of directors of 7
such person. 8
‘‘(3) O
NLINE PLATFORM.— 9
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—For purposes of this 10
subsection, subject to subparagraph (B), the 11
term ‘online platform’ means any public-facing 12
website, web application, or digital application 13
(including a social network, ad network, or 14
search engine) which— 15
‘‘(i)(I) sells qualified political adver-16
tisements; and 17
‘‘(II) has 50,000,000 or more unique 18
monthly United States visitors or users for 19
a majority of months during the preceding 20
12 months; or 21
‘‘(ii) is a third-party advertising ven-22
dor that has 50,000,000 or more unique 23
monthly United States visitors in the ag-24
gregate on any advertisement space that it 25
VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:18 Mar 09, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00021 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S486.IS S486
pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 22
•S 486 IS
has sold or bought for a majority of 1
months during the preceding 12 months, 2
as measured by an independent digital rat-3
ings service accredited by the Media Rat-4
ings Council (or its successor). 5
‘‘(B) E
XEMPTION.—Such term shall not 6
include any online platform that is a distribu-7
tion facility of any broadcasting station or 8
newspaper, magazine, blog, publication, or peri-9
odical. 10
‘‘(C) T
HIRD-PARTY ADVERTISING VENDOR 11
DEFINED.—For purposes of this subsection, the 12
term ‘third-party advertising vendor’ includes 13
any third-party advertising vendor network, ad-14
vertising agency, advertiser, or third-party ad-15
vertisement serving company that buys and 16
sells advertisement space on behalf of unaffili-17
ated third-party websites, search engines, dig-18
ital applications, or social media sites. 19
‘‘(4) Q
UALIFIED POLITICAL ADVERTISEMENT .— 20
For purposes of this subsection, the term ‘qualified 21
political advertisement’ means any advertisement 22
(including search engine marketing, display adver-23
tisements, video advertisements, native advertise-24
ments, and sponsorships) that— 25
VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:18 Mar 09, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00022 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S486.IS S486
pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 23
•S 486 IS
‘‘(A) is made by or on behalf of a can-1
didate; or 2
‘‘(B) communicates a message relating to 3
any political matter of national importance, in-4
cluding— 5
‘‘(i) a candidate; 6
‘‘(ii) any election to Federal office; or 7
‘‘(iii) a national legislative issue of 8
public importance. 9
‘‘(5) T
IME TO MAINTAIN FILE .—The informa-10
tion required under this subsection shall be made 11
available as soon as possible and shall be retained by 12
the online platform for a period of not less than 4 13
years. 14
‘‘(6) S
PECIAL RULE.—For purposes of this sub-15
section, multiple versions of an advertisement that 16
contain no material differences (such as versions 17
that differ only because they contain a recipient’s 18
name, or differ only in size, color, font, or layout) 19
may be treated as a single qualified political adver-20
tisement. 21
‘‘(7) P
ENALTIES.—For penalties for failure by 22
online platforms, and persons requesting to purchase 23
a qualified political advertisement on online plat-24
VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:18 Mar 09, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00023 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S486.IS S486
pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 24
•S 486 IS
forms, to comply with the requirements of this sub-1
section, see section 309.’’. 2
(b) E
FFECTIVEDATE.—The amendments made by 3
this section shall take effect on the date of the enactment 4
of this Act and shall take effect without regard to whether 5
or not the Federal Election Commission has promulgated 6
the final regulations necessary to carry out this part and 7
the amendments made by this part by the deadline set 8
forth in subsection (c). 9
(c) R
ULEMAKING.—Not later than 120 days after the 10
date of the enactment of this Act, the Federal Election 11
Commission shall establish rules— 12
(1) for determining whether an advertisement 13
communicates a national legislative issue for pur-14
poses of section 304(j) of the Federal Election Cam-15
paign Act of 1971 (as added by subsection (a)); 16
(2) requiring common data formats for the 17
record required to be maintained under such section 18
304(j) so that all online platforms submit and main-19
tain data online in a common, machine-readable and 20
publicly accessible format; and 21
(3) establishing search interface requirements 22
relating to such record, including searches by can-23
didate name, issue, purchaser, and date. 24
VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:18 Mar 09, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00024 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S486.IS S486
pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 25
•S 486 IS
(d) REPORTING.—Not later than 2 years after the 1
date of the enactment of this Act, and biannually there-2
after, the Chairman of the Federal Election Commission 3
shall submit a report to Congress on— 4
(1) matters relating to compliance with and the 5
enforcement of the requirements of section 304(j) of 6
the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971, as 7
added by subsection (a); 8
(2) recommendations for any modifications to 9
such section to assist in carrying out its purposes; 10
and 11
(3) identifying ways to bring transparency and 12
accountability to political advertisements distributed 13
online for free. 14
SEC. 9. PREVENTING CONTRIBUTIONS, EXPENDITURES, 15
INDEPENDENT EXPENDITURES, AND DIS-16
BURSEMENTS FOR ELECTIONEERING COM-17
MUNICATIONS BY FOREIGN NATIONALS IN 18
THE FORM OF ONLINE ADVERTISING. 19
Section 319 of the Federal Election Campaign Act 20
of 1971 (52 U.S.C. 30121) is amended by adding at the 21
end the following new subsection: 22
‘‘(c) R
ESPONSIBILITIES OF BROADCASTSTATIONS, 23
P
ROVIDERS OFCABLE ANDSATELLITETELEVISION, AND 24
O
NLINEPLATFORMS.— 25
VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:18 Mar 09, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00025 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S486.IS S486
pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 26
•S 486 IS
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—Each television or radio 1
broadcast station, provider of cable or satellite tele-2
vision, or online platform (as defined in section 3
304(j)(3)) shall make reasonable efforts to ensure 4
that communications described in section 318(a) and 5
made available by such station, provider, or platform 6
are not purchased by a foreign national, directly or 7
indirectly. 8
‘‘(2) R
EGULATIONS.—Not later than 1 year 9
after the date of the enactment of this subsection, 10
the Commission shall promulgate regulations on 11
what constitutes reasonable efforts under paragraph 12
(1).’’. 13
SEC. 10. REQUIRING ONLINE PLATFORMS TO DISPLAY NO-14
TICES IDENTIFYING SPONSORS OF POLIT-15
ICAL ADVERTISEMENTS AND TO ENSURE NO-16
TICES CONTINUE TO BE PRESENT WHEN AD-17
VERTISEMENTS ARE SHARED. 18
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Section 304 of the Federal Elec-19
tion Campaign Act of 1971 (52 U.S.C. 30104), as amend-20
ed by section 8(a), is amended by adding at the end the 21
following new subsection: 22
‘‘(k) E
NSURINGDISPLAY ANDSHARING OFSPONSOR 23
I
DENTIFICATION IN ONLINEPOLITICALADVERTISE-24
MENTS.— 25
VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:18 Mar 09, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00026 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S486.IS S486
pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 27
•S 486 IS
‘‘(1) REQUIREMENT.—Any online platform that 1
displays a qualified political advertisement (regard-2
less of whether such qualified political advertisement 3
was purchased directly from the online platform) 4
shall— 5
‘‘(A) display with the advertisement a visi-6
ble notice identifying the sponsor of the adver-7
tisement (or, if it is not practical for the plat-8
form to display such a notice, a notice that the 9
advertisement is sponsored by a person other 10
than the platform); and 11
‘‘(B) ensure that the notice will continue to 12
be displayed if a viewer of the advertisement 13
shares the advertisement with others on that 14
platform. 15
‘‘(2) S
AFE HARBOR.—An online platform shall 16
not be treated as having failed to comply with the 17
requirements of paragraph (1)(A) for the 18
misidentification of a person as the sponsor of the 19
advertisement if— 20
‘‘(A) the person placing the online adver-21
tisement designated the person displayed in the 22
advertisement as the sponsor; and 23
‘‘(B) the online platform relied on such 24
designation in good faith. 25
VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:18 Mar 09, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00027 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S486.IS S486
pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 28
•S 486 IS
‘‘(3) DEFINITIONS.—In this subsection— 1
‘‘(A) the term ‘online platform’ has the 2
meaning given such term in subsection (j)(3); 3
‘‘(B) the term ‘‘qualified political adver-4
tisement’ has the meaning given such term in 5
subsection (j)(4); and 6
‘‘(C) the term ‘sponsor’ means the person 7
purchasing the advertisement.’’. 8
(b) E
FFECTIVEDATE.—The amendment made by 9
subsection (a) shall apply with respect to advertisements 10
displayed on or after the 120–day period which begins on 11
the date of the enactment of this Act and shall take effect 12
without regard to whether or not the Federal Election 13
Commission has promulgated regulations to carry out 14
such amendments. 15
Æ
VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:18 Mar 09, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00028 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\S486.IS S486
pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB