Senators Introduce “Honest Ads” Act for Online Political Ads

Senators Klobuchar (D-MN), Warner (D-VA), and Graham (D-SC) announced have introduced a bipartisan bill to make online political advertisements more transparent. The Honest Ads Act is a direct response to Russian interference in the 2016 election, which relied on anonymous political ads on Facebook, Google and Twitter. The Honest Ads Act would impose the same disclosure requirements for online ads as for TV and radio ads. "Foreign adversaries interfered in the 2016 election and are continuing to use information warfare to try to influence our government and divide Americans. We must act now to protect our democracy and prevent this kind of interference from ever happening again," Senator Klobuchar said. EPIC Consumer Protection Counsel Christine Bannan testified at the Federal Election Commission hearing in 2018 on the agency's proposed rule for political ads. EPIC has filed several FOIA lawsuits to determine the scope of Russian interference: EPIC v. FBI (Russian Hacking), EPIC v. ODNI (Russian Hacking), and EPIC v. IRS (Donald Trump's Tax Records).