Meta Fined $24.7 Mln for Campaign Finance Disclosure Violations

Meta was fined $24.7 million after a judge in the US found the tech company intentionally violated state campaign finance disclosure laws 822 times.

A statement from Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson said the fine represents the largest campaign finance penalty ever anywhere in the country.

A Meta spokesperson mentioned that the company was evaluating its options, but declined to comment further.

The ruling by King Douglass North Superior Court judge was the maximum allowable for more than 800 violations of the Washington Fair Campaign Practices Act.

The law was passed by the electorate in 1972 and later strengthened by the legislature.

The Washington attorney general argued that the cap was appropriate given that he had previously sued Facebook for violating the same law in 2018.

The Washington Transparency Act requires ad vendors such as Meta (now Meta owns Facebook) to keep and publicly disclose the names and addresses of purchasers of political ads, the destination of those ads, how the ads are paid, and the total number of times each ad was viewed.