Letter To Facebook

1411 K Street, NW, Suite 1400 Washington, DC 20005
tel (202) 736-2200 fax (202) 736-2222

www.campaignlegalcenter.org
September 12, 2017
Mark Zuckerberg
Founder, Chairman and CEO
Facebook
1 Hacker Way
Menlo Park, CA 94025.
On behalf of the Campaign Legal Center, we write to urge Facebook to release the content of
the political advertisements that the company has announced were secretly sponsored by
Russian nationals on Facebooks platform in recent election cycles.
According to Facebooks Chief Security Officer Alex Stamos, as of September 6, 2017 Facebook
had identified at least 470 fake accounts tied to Russia and approximately 3,000 ads that
those accounts purchased between June of 2015 and May of 2017. At least 23 million and
potentially as many as 70 million people viewed the ads, according to one analysis, meaning
up to 28 percent of American adults were reached by this foreign influence campaign.
Federal law has long recognized that American elections belong to Americans. It is illegal for
any foreign national to spend money to influence American voters as they participate in the
process of democratic self-government.
Specifically, the law bars any foreign national from making any expenditure, which is defined
as spending any money for the purpose of influencing a U.S. election. Facebooks
characterization of the Russian ads indicate that least some of the communications would
meet the legal definition of expenditure, and thus that the Russian nationals who created
and paid for the ads violated the law by making prohibited campaign expenditures.
Put another way, Facebook was secretly paid to host illegal political ads as part of an illegal
foreign influence effort. Yet, Facebook has refused to make the ads public. Releasing those
advertisements could allow the country to better understand the nature and extent of foreign
interference with our democracy.
Federal law also has long recognized that voters have a powerful interest in knowing who is
trying to influence their exercise of the franchise. As the U.S. Supreme Court has
observed, transparency enables the electorate to make informed decisions and give proper
weight to different speakers and messages.
Federal law promotes such transparency in two ways: one, by requiring public disclosure of the
sources of funding behind political ads, and two, by requiring disclaimers on the ads
themselves stating who paid for it.
There is no indication that the sources of funding behind the Russian-sponsored Facebook ads
were reported to the Federal Election Commission (FEC). Nor is there any indication that those
communications included a disclaimer telling viewers who paid for the ads.
Facebook has previously asked the FEC to exempt political ads run on its platform from
disclaimer requirements (see Advisory Opinion Request 2011-09). The Commission did not
grant this request, and Facebook therefore should have ensured that users who viewed the ads
could know who paid for the communication. But Facebook can now advance transparency in
this instance by voluntarily releasing the advertisements that appear to have been funded by
Russian individuals or entities.
Furthermore, the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) requires that agents of foreign
governments disclose all public communications aimed at influencing American political
debate or public policy. It does not appear that any such disclosures were made.
We are not aware of any federal law that would prohibit Facebook from making these ads
public.
Facebook is certainly aware of the role that its platform can play in our democracy. For
example, in recent election cycles Facebook has engaged in laudable efforts to urge its users to
register to vote, to remind them to vote on Election Day, and to help voters find their polling
places.
But by hosting these secretly-sponsored Russian political ads, Facebook appears to have been
used as an accomplice in a foreign governments effort to undermine democratic self-
governance in the United States. Therefore, we ask you, as the head of a company that has
used its platform to promote democratic engagement, to be transparent about how foreign
actors used that same platform to undermine our democracy.
We look forward to Facebook releasing the Russian-sponsored advertisements.
Trevor Potter
President
Campaign Legal Center

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1411 K Street, NW, Suite 1400 Washington, DC 20005

tel (202) 736-2200 fax (202) 736-2222

September 12, 2017

We look forward to Facebook releasing the Russian-sponsored advertisements.

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