Careful Consideration Needed in Regulating Online Political Advertising, Warns EFF's Cohn

Additional funding and more resources for stronger enforcement of election laws that restrict foreign entities from interfering in U.S. elections is the "best first step" for congressional action rather than new regulations, blogged Electronic Frontier Foundation Executive Director Cindy Cohn Tuesday. Sens. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and Mark Warner, D-Va., may introduce legislation as early as this week (see 1709250058) that would regulate online political ads. Cohn said applying traditional FCC and Federal Election Commission campaign finance rules for broadcast media -- which the proposed legislation largely does -- may not translate well for online platforms: Facebook, Google, Twitter and Reddit can handle requirements like reporting major ad buys, but such rules may burden smaller online platforms, websites and blogs. "Extending the TV and radio election rules to small speakers and free and low-cost Internet speech will discourage these smaller entities from allowing or engaging in political expression at all," said Cohn. Proposed rules also could require people to identify themselves, harming anonymous political speech and infringing Americans' rights to engage in public debate, she said. Internet companies can prevent foreign election interference without new rules by tracking and shutting down the malicious use of bots to spread fake news; being more transparent in how they choose ads for users (see 1710020056); and allowing independent auditors to analyze data that shows how fake stories, hoaxes and other misinformation were disseminated and their potential influence.