Courts Hamper Efforts to Shine Light on Digital Campaign Ads

The fight for disclosure regulation will continue because the court rulings on the Maryland law don’t prohibit all regulation, such as requirements that ads carry disclaimers about the ad sponsor, said Erin Chlopak, a lawyer with the nonprofit Campaign Legal Center and a former FEC staff attorney. The courts focused on what they “viewed to be a mismatch between the mandated disclosure of political ad information by Maryland newspaper platforms and the state’s interest in combating the threat of foreign interference,” Chlopak said. But the rulings “leave room for other legislation” to deal with the threats to the integrity of elections posed by deceptive online ads.

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