Democrat senator pushes for transparency on social media political ads

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) said Sunday that she is working on legislation that would mandate online political advertisements be subject to the same rules as broadcast ads.

“And the rules that apply for ads when they’re put on TV or radio, where you have to register them and say how much you paid, that doesn’t apply to these online ads. And so our laws need to catch up with what’s going on with our campaigns,” Klobuchar told CNN’s “Reliable Sources.” 

The effort comes amid the growing controversy over Facebook’s political advertising during the 2016 election. The social media company admitted last month that Russians possibly tied to the Kremlin purchased ads on the platform during the presidential race. 

Last week, Facebook said approximately 10 million people viewed political ads bought by Russian actors near the 2016 election.

{mosads}Klobuchar is working on a bill with Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), the vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, who has been one of the co-leaders of the committee’s investigation into Russia’s attempts to meddle in the United States election last year. 

The Minnesota lawmaker said the goal of the future legislation is to require political ads online to register date and time slots, similar to that of broadcast ads.

“It’s pretty much what you do on broadcast. Now the difference is broadcast is seen by everyone and these Facebook ads are really hidden,” Klobuchar explained.

“They’re targeted to certain people, whether it’s Twitter, whether it’s Google, any kind of online platform, that’s what was happening in the last election.”

Klobuchar said they have yet to gain Republican support for the push, but are pursuing GOP senators.