Disclosure in the Tiny Ad Space
BY Nancy Scola | Thursday, September 9 2010
Politico's Morning Tech has some great reporting on Google's request for the Federal Election Commission to clarify how online political ad disclosure requirements, an in particular the application of disclosures that can run 30-100 characters long to tiny Google AdWords ads. Google's argued to the FEC that the space contraints of its online text ads make them "fundamentally different" than TV or print ads. Facebook agrees, but, reports the Politico team:
...Facebook and Google do break on one key point: Facebook disagrees with Google’s claim that simply showing a "destination URL" to the ad buyer’s site could convey enough information to be considered an alternative disclosure requirement. According to Facebook’s filing, “[A] variety of organizations use URLs that do not include the name of the entity, nor is it readily apparent” who the sponsor is. Examples in Facebook’s filing include “carlyisdreamin.com” -- a site that seems to be for GOPer Carly Fiorina, but is instead run by the DSCC. (Facebook does, however, believe the ads should link to sites with full disclosure statements.)
Not much to add here, other than to say that the expectations for how online political ads are regulated are being set at the FEC as we speak, so you might want to keep an eye on the debate should it affect you in some way.