Judge Orders Meta to Pay $24.6M for Campaign Finance Violations

Meta must pay $24.6 million for intentionally violating Washington state’s campaign finance law more than 800 times, despite establishing a consent decree for previous violations. King County Superior Court Judge Douglass North issued a maximum penalty for the company at the request of Attorney General Bob Ferguson (D), tripling the amount to $30,000 per penalty because the violations were “intentional.” Ferguson’s office is seeking an additional $10.5 million for costs and fees. State law requires commercial advertisers like Meta, owner of Facebook and Instagram, which run campaign ads, to maintain publicly available campaign ad records. This includes ad costs, sponsor information and targeting information. Meta’s ad library doesn’t contain all the necessary information, Ferguson’s office said. The AG filed his first lawsuit in 2018, resulting in a consent decree and a $238,000 fine for Meta. Meta continued running political ads in the state “without maintaining the required information,” prompting a second lawsuit in 2020, said Ferguson’s office. North granted the AG’s motion for summary judgment, resolving the case without trial. He denied the company’s attempts to strike down key provisions of Washington’s law as unconstitutional, said Ferguson’s office. “I have one word for Facebook’s conduct in this case -- arrogance,” Ferguson said. “It intentionally disregarded Washington’s election transparency laws.” Meta didn’t comment.