AG Ferguson: Judge rules Facebook parent Meta intentionally violated campaign finance laws

OLYMPIA — Attorney General Bob Ferguson recently announced that a King County Superior Court judge ruled that Facebook parent company Meta repeatedly violated Washington’s campaign finance transparency law. The judge also denied Meta’s attempt to gut Washington’s campaign transparency law.

In July, Ferguson filed a summary judgment motion against Meta arguing that the tech giant committed hundreds of intentional violations of Washington state’s campaign finance transparency law. At a hearing today, the judge granted the state’s motion for summary judgment against the company.

This law requires campaign advertisers, including entities such as Meta that host political ads, to make information about Washington political ads that run on their platforms available for public inspection in a timely manner. The state asserted that Meta violated the law repeatedly since December 2018 and committed hundreds of violations.

The judge concluded that Meta repeatedly and intentionally violated the law and must pay penalties. The exact amount of penalties will be determined at a later date. Under state law, the court can assess a civil penalty of up to $10,000 per violation. In addition, because Meta’s violations are found to have been intentional, the court may triple the amount of the judgment as punitive damages. By law, campaign finance penalties go to the State Public Disclosure Transparency Account.

The judge also denied Meta’s motion for summary judgment, which asked the court to strike down a key provision of Washington’s decades-old, best-in-the-nation law. Meta tried to strike down the law despite repeatedly stating publicly that it is committed to “providing transparency during elections.”

“We defeated Facebook’s cynical attempt to strike down our campaign finance transparency law,” Ferguson said. “On behalf of the people of Washington, I challenge Facebook to accept this decision and do something very simple – follow the law.”

More information here