March 28, 2024      3:30 PM

Texas Ethics Commission looks to require disclosure for paid influencer ads on social media

The latest via Mark McCaig at the Texas Voice:

Last week, the Texas Ethics Commission took the first step in adopting rulemaking that would require social media influencers to include political advertising disclosures when they are paid to post political advertising online.

While the Texas Election Code generally requires paid political advertising that appears on an internet website to include a disclosure statement that includes the name of the person who paid for the advertising, current Texas Ethics Commission rules carve out some exceptions to this.

Under current Texas Ethics Commission Rule 26.1, a disclosure statement is not required on political advertising posted online if the person posting or re-posting the political advertising “is not an officeholder, candidate, or political committee” and “did not make an expenditure exceeding $100 in a reporting period for political advertising beyond the basic cost of hardware messaging software and bandwidth.”

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