According to the Washington state Attorney General, Bob Ferguson, a court ruled in a hearing before Judge Douglass North at King County Superior Court that Facebook owner Meta repeatedly and intentionally violated Washington’s campaign finance law and must pay fines.
The court also rejected Meta’s attempt to repeal Washington’s campaign finance transparency law.
Ferguson said in a statement that his office had defeated Facebook’s “cynical attempt” to undermine Washington’s campaign finance transparency law. Ferguson had previously filed a summary judgment motion against Meta, alleging that the company committed hundreds of willful violations of Washington State’s campaign finance transparency law.
Since the law requires campaign advertisers, including companies like Meta that run political ads, to provide the public with timely information about Washington’s political ads running on their platforms, the judge granted the state’s motion for summary judgment against the company. The state claimed that Meta had repeatedly violated the law and committed hundreds of violations since December 2018.
According to the judge, Meta had repeatedly and intentionally violated the law and had to face fines. A decision on the exact amount of the fines will be made at a later date.
The sources for this piece include an article in ATG.