Currently, the Federal Election Commission (FEC) does not regulate political advertising online in the same way the agency requires sponsorship disclosures for political advertising on traditional mediums, especially on television. At the federal level, the proposed Honest Ads Act seeks to extend existing disclosure requirements for political advertising in other mediums to political advertising placed online. Although the bill was introduced in 2017, reintroduced in 2019, and incorporated into the Freedom to Vote Act (H.R. 1), no action has been taken.
To fill this regulatory gap, some states have enacted new legislation or amended their existing election laws to create disclosure and/or recording keeping requirements for online political advertising. (Note: 48 states and the District of Columbia also have laws that could potentially regulate the content of online political advertising. You can review our summary of those laws here.)
While each state defines online political advertising slightly differently, the majority of states that have laws regarding disclosure and recordkeeping include both sponsorship disclaimer requirements for the ad itself and recordkeeping requirements to create public databases with information about those ads. This is the case in California, Maryland, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, and Washington. In New York, the State Board of Elections maintains records under the record-keeping requirement, but the other states put this responsibility on the online platforms that run the ads, like Google and Facebook. Other states have adopted rules under only one of these themes. For instance, Alaska, Colorado, Wyoming, Vermont, and Virginia have sponsorship disclaimer requirements for online political ads, but do not impose any recordkeeping requirements on platforms.
As part of this project, we have compiled the laws of states that have disclosure and recordkeeping regulations for online political advertising. You can read our analysis of these laws enacted prior to January 2020 by downloading our report, Regulating the Political Wild West: State Efforts to Disclose Sources of Online Political Advertising.
Since January 2020, Alaska, Colorado, and Virginia have also enacted sponsorship disclaimer requirements for online political ads, raising the total number of states with recordkeeping or disclosure laws to eleven.
You can click on one of the states below to see a summary of the disclosure and recordkeeping law(s) in each state. The individual state pages outline how that state defines online political advertising, whether the state has sponsorship disclaimer requirements for political ads online, and whether the state places recordkeeping requirements on online platforms. Finally, the pages also note where online platforms have imposed restrictions on ads from these states.
Alaska
Alaska has established sponsorship disclaimer requirements for electioneering communications disseminated online.
California
California has established sponsorship disclaimer requirements and record-keeping requirements for “electronic media advertisements” and “online platform disclosed advertisements.”
Colorado
Colorado has established sponsorship disclaimers for political ads that are placed on a website, streaming media service, or online forum for a fee.
Maryland
Maryland has established sponsorship disclaimer requirements and record-keeping requirements for “qualifying paid digital communications.”
Nevada
Although Nevada law seemingly does not expressly apply to online political advertising, Nevada has established sponsorship disclaimer and record-keeping requirements for some forms of political advertising, and, currently, Google will not accept ads about state and local candidates or ballot measures in Nevada.
New Jersey
New Jersey has established sponsorship disclaimer requirements and record-keeping requirements for “Internet and digital advertising.”
New York
New York has established sponsorship disclaimer requirements and record-keeping requirements for “paid internet or digital advertising.”
Vermont
Vermont has established sponsorship disclaimer requirements for “electioneering communications” distributed online.
Virginia
Virginia has established sponsorship disclaimer requirements for political advertisements “placed or promoted for a fee on an online platform.”
Washington
Washington has established sponsorship disclaimer requirements and record-keeping requirements for online “political advertising,” “electioneering communications,” and “independent expenditures.”
Wyoming
Wyoming has established sponsorship disclaimer requirements for “campaign advertising” distributed online.
This information is current as of January 27, 2022.