A judge on Friday ruled that Meta, Facebook’s parent company, repeatedly and intentionally violated Washington campaign-finance law, and must pay penalties yet to be determined, according to Attorney General Bob Ferguson’s office.
The court also denied Meta’s attempt to invalidate Washington’s decades-old law on political ad transparency, according to the Attorney General’s Office, which has repeatedly sued Meta over campaign-finance-law violations.
The oral ruling came during a hearing Friday before King County Superior Court Judge Douglass North. A written version was not immediately available.
In a statement, Ferguson said his office defeated Facebook’s “cynical attempt” to gut Washington’s campaign-finance transparency law.
“On behalf of the people of Washington, I challenge Facebook to accept this decision and do something very simple — follow the law,” Ferguson said.
Meta did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Washington’s transparency law, passed by voters a half-century ago, requires ad sellers such as Meta to disclose the names and addresses of those who buy political ads, the target of such ads and the total number of views of each ad. Ad sellers must provide the information to anyone who asks for it.
The tech giant, which owns Facebook, Instagram and other social media platforms, has repeatedly objected to the requirements, and argued in a summary judgment motion that Washington’s law “unduly burdens political speech” and is “virtually impossible to comply with.”
The law allows financial penalties of $10,000 per violation, which can be tripled when violations are deemed intentional. The Attorney General’s Office asserts Facebook has committed hundreds of violations since 2018. The amount of penalties will be determined at a later date.
