Judge rules against Meta over Washington state campaign ad violations
A judge on Friday ruled against Meta Platforms Inc. (Nasdaq: META) in a legal battle with Washington state's attorney general over campaign finance laws, calling the company's violations intentional.
Meta, the Silicon Valley-based parent company of Facebook, has tried to gut the state's unique financial disclosure requirements for political advertising. Attorney General Bob Ferguson has sued the company multiple times for violating the requirements.
The 50-year-old Fair Campaign Practices Act requires companies that run political ads to maintain financial records and release them to the public in a timely manner. It requires the cost of the ad, the sponsor and the person paying for the advertisement to all be available through public records requests.
Meta tried to argue in a July 15 motion that the requirements put an unfair burden on its political speech, an argument that Ferguson called "cynical" in a news release on Friday.
https://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/news/2022/09/02/king-county-meta-campaign-finance-violations.html