{"id":832,"date":"2011-05-20T16:02:33","date_gmt":"2011-05-20T20:02:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www3.law.harvard.edu\/journals\/hlpr\/?p=832"},"modified":"2015-10-02T15:57:05","modified_gmt":"2015-10-02T15:57:05","slug":"facebook-friends-the-fec","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/2011\/05\/20\/facebook-friends-the-fec\/","title":{"rendered":"Facebook Friends the FEC"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jake Laperruque<\/em><\/p>\n

Facebook has been criticized in the past for its\u00a0creepy advertisements<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0privacy violations<\/a>.\u00a0 Now, the social media empire is reversing course and taking action to preserve privacy \u2014 for its\u00a0advertisers.\u00a0 Recently, Facebook\u00a0sent a letter to the FEC<\/a>, requesting exemption from disclosure requirements for campaign ads posted on the website.\u00a0 Federal law requires that any political advertisement disclose its source of payment.\u00a0 However, given the ads\u2019 small size and the limited space available, Facebook is asking to be released from this obligation.\u00a0 Facebook supported Google in making a similar request several years ago, which the FEC granted.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Facebook-FEC-300x184\"<\/a>
\n<\/span>
\nThere are certainly reasons to support such a measure.\u00a0 Facebook advertisements are often less than a square inch in size; to devote space to disclosure requirements is very inconvenient. Further, it can be unnecessary, as many of these ads will simply be a candidate\u2019s name and slogan, with an embedded link to their website.<\/p>\n

At the same time there are reasons to be concerned.\u00a0 While many political ads on Facebook will just be banners and links, the potential for negative advertising still remains.\u00a0 And even though space is limited,\u00a0it doesn\u2019t take much to start a rumor<\/a>; a few choice words\u00a0targeted to the correct demographic<\/a>\u00a0can quickly escalate into a major news story based upon misinformation.\u00a0 Taking away disclosure requirements removes accountability to those who would propagate such smear tactics, and limits our ability to assess the accuracy of facts by examining the source presenting them.<\/p>\n

Even beyond the case at hand, Facebook\u2019s request creates two serious concerns.<\/p>\n

The first is expansion.\u00a0 If Facebook is able to attain exemption from the disclosure requirement on the basis of inconvenience, where do we draw the line?\u00a0 What about slightly larger print advertisements that go in newspapers and magazines?\u00a0 What about television spots, many of which only last for 30 seconds and are forced to devote 5 seconds of time to a disclosure requirement?\u00a0 Perhaps more troubling than these questions is the fact that the FEC is answering them without public oversight or consideration of the goals of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act.\u00a0 At a time of\u00a0unprecedented corporate influence on our elections system<\/a>, this is certainly a cause for concern.<\/p>\n

The second is the prospect for new disclosure requirements.\u00a0 Facebook is one of several Web 2.0 innovations \u2013 along with Twitter and YouTube \u2013 that is rapidly becoming a major media source for campaigns, with comparable influence to television in reaching out to voters.\u00a0 But because they are free media sources, there are currently no disclosure requirements,\u00a0creating the potential for abuse<\/a>.\u00a0 Campaigns\u2019 use of new media requires reform, yet Facebook\u2019s letter signals that the company will be resistant to the prospect of oversight and regulation.\u00a0 And with Facebook\u00a0quietly moving to increase its political influence<\/a>, this is a serious cause for concern as well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jake Laperruque Facebook has been criticized in the past for its\u00a0creepy advertisements\u00a0and\u00a0privacy violations.\u00a0 Now, the social media empire is reversing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-832","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/peZQka-dq","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/832","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=832"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/832\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=832"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=832"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=832"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}