Facebook officials are asking the Federal Election Commission to exempt them from U.S. election law. The law Facebook doesn’t like; disclosing who paid for political advertising on their website.
Facebook’s arguments are really weak. In a written explanation, Facebook says by disclosing who paid for the ad, it would make the ad bigger, and they don’t want bigger ads. Also, Facebook tried to compare their political ads to things like bumper stickers and t-shirts.
How much bigger would the ad be, when it includes the name of who paid for it? Also, comparing bumper stickers and t-shirts to paid political ads is comparing apples to oranges. One is given away, or even sold, to supporters, the other is a paid advertisement.
What is the real reason Facebook doesn’t want to disclose who pays for political ads on their website?