Sec. 4208. Political record requirements for online platforms
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Section 304 of the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 ( 52 U.S.C. 30104 ) is amended by adding at the end the following new subsection: An online platform shall maintain, and make available for online public inspection in machine readable format, a complete record of any request to purchase on such online platform a qualified political advertisement which is made by a person whose aggregate requests to purchase qualified political advertisements on such online platform during the calendar year exceeds $500.
Any person who requests to purchase a qualified political advertisement on an online platform shall provide the online platform with such information as is necessary for the online platform to comply with the requirements of subparagraph (A). A record maintained under paragraph (1)(A) shall contain— a digital copy of the qualified political advertisement; a description of the audience targeted by the advertisement, the number of views generated from the advertisement, and the date and time that the advertisement is first displayed and last displayed; and information regarding— the average rate charged for the advertisement; the name of the candidate to which the advertisement refers and the office to which the candidate is seeking election, the election to which the advertisement refers, or the national legislative issue to which the advertisement refers (as applicable); in the case of a request made by, or on behalf of, a candidate, the name of the candidate, the authorized committee of the candidate, and the treasurer of such committee; and in the case of any request not described in clause (iii), the name of the person purchasing the advertisement, the name and address of a contact person for such person, and a list of the chief executive officers or members of the executive committee or of the board of directors of such person.
For purposes of this subsection, the term online platform means any public-facing website, web application, or digital application (including a social network, ad network, or search engine) which— sells qualified political advertisements; and has 50,000,000 or more unique monthly United States visitors or users for a majority of months during the preceding 12 months. For purposes of this subsection, the term qualified political advertisement means any advertisement (including search engine marketing, display advertisements, video advertisements, native advertisements, and sponsorships) that— is made by or on behalf of a candidate; or communicates a message relating to any political matter of national importance, including— a candidate; any election to Federal office; or a national legislative issue of public importance.
The information required under this subsection shall be made available as soon as possible and shall be retained by the online platform for a period of not less than 4 years. In accordance with rules established by the Commission, if an online platform shows that the platform used best efforts to determine whether or not a request to purchase a qualified political advertisement was subject to the requirements of this subsection, the online platform shall not be considered to be in violation of such requirements.
For penalties for failure by online platforms, and persons requesting to purchase a qualified political advertisement on online platforms, to comply with the requirements of this subsection, see section 309. . Not later than 120 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Federal Election Commission shall establish rules— requiring common data formats for the record required to be maintained under section 304(j) of the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 (as added by subsection (a)) so that all online platforms submit and maintain data online in a common, machine-readable and publicly accessible format; and establishing search interface requirements relating to such record, including searches by candidate name, issue, purchaser, and date; and establishing the criteria for the safe harbor exception provided under paragraph
(6)of section 304(j) of such Act (as added by subsection (a)). Not later than 2 years after the date of the enactment of this Act, and biannually thereafter, the Chairman of the Federal Election Commission shall submit a report to Congress on— matters relating to compliance with and the enforcement of the requirements of section 304(j) of the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971, as added by subsection (a); recommendations for any modifications to such section to assist in carrying out its purposes; and identifying ways to bring transparency and accountability to political advertisements distributed online for free.
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Sec. 4208
Political record requirements for online platforms
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