Ferguson seeks $24.6 million from Facebook for campaign finance violations

OLYMPIA – Attorney General Bob Ferguson is seeking the maximum penalty of $24.6 million against Facebook’s parent company, Meta, for violations of Washington’s campaign finance transparency law.

A King County Superior Court judge ruled on Oct. 6 that Meta had 822 intentional violations of Washington’s law, which requires campaign advertisers, including sites such as Meta that host ads, to make information about the state’s political ads available for public inspection in a timely manner. The penalty is $10,000 per violation, but because a judge found Meta intentionally violated the law, the penalty can be tripled, according to Ferguson’s office.

“We have penalties for a reason,” Ferguson said in a statement. “Facebook is a repeat, intentional violator of the law.”

In a 2020 lawsuit, Ferguson argued Meta repeatedly violated the state’s law by failing to include all information that Washington law requires advertisers maintain. Some information is publicly available in Meta’s Ad Library, but not all of it, Ferguson said.

Washington’s campaign finance disclosure law was first adopted in 1972 and requires commercial advertisers to maintain records on ads, such as the cost of the ad, the sponsor of the ad and targeting and reach information.

In a summary judgment motion filed earlier this year, Meta tried to get Washington’s law that requires commercial advertisers to maintain records on campaign ads struck down.

“Instead of accepting responsibility and apologizing for its conduct, Facebook went to court to gut our campaign finance law in order to avoid accountability,” Ferguson said in a statement. “If this case doesn’t warrant a maximum penalty, what does?”

At a Sept. 2 hearing, King County Superior Court Judge Douglass North said Meta collects all of the required data in order to publish the ads but doesn’t necessarily make it public.

“All they have to do in order to display it is essentially press a button,” North said.

Ferguson had sued Meta once before in 2018, which required Meta to pay $238,000, but the company continued to run ads without maintaining required information, according to Ferguson’s office.

In recent years, the Grocery Manufacturers Association and frequent initiative sponsor Tim Eyman both faced intentional violations of campaign finance laws. Campaign finance penalties go to the State Public Disclosure Transparency Account, which can be spent only on enforcing and implementing campaign finance laws.