WASHINGTON PUNISHES FACEBOOK AND GOOGLE FOR DESTROYING RECORDS PROVING THEY ARE DNC SHILLS
Attorney General of Washington State Bob Ferguson said on Tuesday that Google and Facebook are agreed to pay a fine of $455,000 for the settlement of the allegations, that they have failed to keep the record about who was paying for the ads campaigns on their websites.
More Ferguson added that two cases were filed against both companies for not obeying the law on political ads transparency. Therefore, Facebook will be paying $238,000 and $217,000 will be paid by Google for this.
A statement came from Google that they compiled with Washington state until the month of June when new disclosure requirements were introduced by the state. Then they paused accepting the election ads because they were unable to follow the new rules.More Google said that
We have rolled out several features this year to ensure transparency in United States federal elections and we are looking at ways to bring these tools to the state level as well.
The company was pleased to solve this matter – Said by Facebook spokesperson Beth Gautier
She said that
We’re working hard to protect election integrity and prevent foreign interference. We believe all the ads should be transparent on Facebook and are not waiting for any legislation to authorize political advertisers and house these ads in a public archive.
Facebook and Google denied the liability that they have broken the law as the part of the settlement
When Public Disclosure Commission passed an emergency rule and also issued some regulations related to a new law regarding companies like Google and Facebook which are related to digital advertising, which clarified that these must maintain their information publicly available about political ads, Same like other media and TV stations
Moreover, Ferguson said that
Whether you are a small town newspaper or a large corporation, Washington political advertising disclosure law applies to everyone