Thu. Mar 28th, 2024

Seattle City, Washington, has claimed that Facebook has been violating certain laws. It is said that they have violated 1977 campaign finance law, which states that if any company accepts advertisement related to political matter, then it should be transparent to the public about the “nature and extent of advertising services”.

Facebook’s vice president for state and local public policy, Will Castleberry stated that the company had followed the rule. “Facebook is a strong supporter of transparency in political advertising,” he said. “In response to a request from the Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission, we were able to provide relevant information.”

Executive director of the Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission, Wayne Barnet stated that Facebook did not provide enough information about the political ads when asked.

Facebook gave a two page spreadsheet.  Barnet said “doesn’t come close to meeting their public obligation,” . “We gave Facebook ample time to comply with the law. I’ll be discussing our next steps this week with the city attorney’s office.” he added.

Facebook could face fine upto $5,000 per advertising buy over laws if the company really didn’t give “exact nature and extent of the advertising services.”